Ex-IB officer Kulkarni's hit-and-run death pre-planned? Neighbour, son arrested

The mysterious death of RN Kulkarni, an 82-year-old retired Assistant Director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), will now be treated as a murder case based on CCTV footage of the incident and allegations of past enmity with his neighbour.

Two suspects have reportedly been taken into custody in the case.

Kulkarni was hit by a car on November 4 near the Manasa Gangotri campus of the Mysuru University during a walk. He was instantaneously killed.

While the mysterious death caused by a ‘hit-and-run’ accident raised suspicion among Kulkarni’s colleagues in IB, their intervention prodded the Mysuru police look into other angles in the case.

Also read: Murder of former IB officer in Mysuru caught on camera

It is said that the Ministry of Home Affairs has taken this incident seriously and has asked the Karnataka government to investigate the case from all angles.

Sources say the Home Ministry has expressed its doubts over the investigation skills of Karnataka police after the IB officer’s death was registered as a hit-and-run case by the VV Puram Traffic Police. An IB officer said that it was department officers who helped local police in the probe and found the CCTV footage of the incident to probe the suspected ‘murder angle’ to the case. The case has now been transferred to the Jayalakshmipuram police who have booked a murder case. The IB is reportedly helping the Mysuru police in the investigation.

Neighbour prime suspect

After studying CCTV footage of the incident, the investigators found that the car which hit Kulkarni did not have a number plate, was speeding on a narrow road and fled immediately after the incident.

Police are probing several angles to find the possibility of a planned murder, and say one of them could be Kulkarni’s rivalry with his neighbour Madappa over violation of municipality rules during construction. Kulkarni’s son-in-law Sanjay Angadi told police that his father-in-law had requested Madappa to leave some space between their properties as per law while constructing his building. As Madappa had declined, Kulkarni had got a stay from the high court.

Madappa and his son reportedly have been taken into custody.

Kulkarni’s complaints, letters ignored

The complaint also mentioned that Kulkarni had informed police that he was being followed by cars with the intention of killing him, and also filed a complaint in this regard. Kulkarni also wrote letters to the Mysuru police commissioner and the Prime Minister’s Office in this regard, but received no response. Sources said, local police also didn’t take Kulkarni’s complaint seriously and never warned or recorded any statements of Madappa in this regard.

‘An upright, law-abiding officer’

Kulkarni’s friends and juniors, who have worked with him in the department and who can’t be named, have told The Federal that the former IB officer could have been killed by miscreants just for his straightforwardness and taking the legal route.

Kulkarni was an inspiration to his colleagues because of his uprightness and investigation skills, they said.

In the past, Kulkarni’s writings and actions have made his seniors uncomfortable and the government unhappy.

He wrote three books after he retired from the services including his first book ‘Sin of National Conscience’.  His website describes the book as an “explosive account of the secret services of India (IB), written in a very inimitable style, exposing their soft and dirty underbelly.” Sources say, Kulkarni in the book questions the accountability of duties of IB officials when there is no separate department for them and they have to work under the home ministry.

He also had filed a PIL in court questioning the accountability of IB services, embarrassing his senior officials and the Union government several years ago, sources said.

Kulkarni was also the author of two other books – ‘…And yet god smiles’ and ‘Facets of Terrorism in India’. He used his experience of working in the secret services in the books, sources said.

Also read: Karnataka cop death: Complaint against two ministers, police officials

Kulkarni’s third book ‘Facets of Terrorism in India’ was released by the then Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in 2019 in Mysuru.

Man of many talents

Kulkarni was a multi-faceted person who had various skills. He received a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree from Karnataka University Dharwad and started his professional journey.

He commenced his professional journey as a teacher and then went on to become a secret service agent with the Government of India. He worked in Indian diplomatic missions, the corporate world and even as a pilot. He was a champion athlete and represented Karnataka in Cricket. He did his Diploma in Journalism from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (BVB), Bombay.