Last visuals: Video shows rationalist M M Kalburgi being wheeled out of district hospital

M Malleshappa Kalburgi is the third rationalist to be assassinated in India in the last three years. (video below)

Staff correspondent, August 30, 2015, NewsCrunch

Outspoken progressive thinker M M Kalburgi was shot dead at his residence in Dharwad on Sunday morning.

Two unidentified men shot at him from a pointblank range  after knocking on the door of his house.

Kalburgi was rushed to the civil hospital where he was declared brought dead. A video uploaded by Kannada daily Udayavani shows the police bringing out Kalburgi's body from the district hospital.

Throughout his career Kalburgi had battled religious fanatics with his advocacy of rational thought.

He had a confrontational relationship with Hindutva groups such as VHP and Bajrang Dal, who had opposed his comments on idol worship by Hindus.
A noted Kannada scholar, epigraphist and researcher, M M Kalburgi was a former vice chancellor of Hampi University. He had specialised in the Vachana literature, though his writings on the subject was not popular with the Lingayats, the  majority community of Karnataka.

Born in 1938, Kalburgi had won Sahitya Akademi, Karnataka State Sahitya Akademi, Nrupatunga Award and the Pampa Awards.

Kalburgi is the third rationalist to be assassinated in India in the last three years. Early this year Govind Pansare, a Maharashtra communist leader was shot dead by unknown assailants. Two years ago, well-known rationalist Narendra Dabholkar had also been killed.

None of these killers have been caught till now.

Video: Police bringing out Kalburgi's body from the district hospital.