New Delhi: The Apex Court has said that if there is common thread running through the murders of progressive thinkers-Govind Pansare, MM Kalaburagi, Narendra Dabholkar and Gauri Lankesh, then a single agency must investigate the cases.

The SC, on Tuesday asked the CBI, which is probing into Dabholkar murder case if it senses any connection between the murder of four. In case there is a connection, then measures would be taken to hand over all the cases of the CBI.

The bench comprising of UU Laith and Navin Singha said that if these cases are not connected to one another, then the police can probe these cases separately, but if there is a connection, then the CBI must take over all the cases.

The Court, hearing the plea of MM Kalaburagi’s wife Umadevi Kallaburgi, who has been seeking court-monitored SIT probe into the killing of her husband, stated that the Karnataka police, in its status report has mentioned that there is an ‘intimate connection’ between killings of activist Gauri Lankesh and MM Kalaburagi.

Umadevi too has stated in her petition that here is a possibility of a close connection between murder of her husband MM Kalaburagi in 2013 and Govind Pansare.