A month on, probe team fails to make headway, find proof
BENGALURU: A month on, the investigation into the murder of senior journalist Gauri Lankesh, who was gunned down outside her house on September 5 is yet to make significant inroads.
Activists and scribes are planning protest marches in Delhi and Bengaluru on Thursday, to ensure that this probe does not go the way of the investigation into academic MM Kalburgi’s murder in August 2015.
One such march is scheduled to take place in New Delhi from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar on Thursday.
A senior officer in the Special Investigation Team (SIT) said the team was going through a pile of evidence gathered by it and was methodically trying to look at various angles.
Motive has been a point of contention in the case from the beginning with rival claims being made about the affiliation of the perpetrators. “We have so far questioned over 500 people in connection with the case,” the officer said.
Those questioned have included people close to Lankesh, like her brother Indrajit, who had a falling out with her in 2005 over the functioning of Lankesh Patrike, and Maoist leaders who have come above ground.
Activists however, are worried with the pace of the investigation and the lack of any action.
Writer and activist K Neela said that apart from the murder itself, it was worrying that no action had been taken against those celebrating Lankesh’s murder on social media.
“The onus of finding the culprits is on the SIT. But what is worrying us is that our prime minister has not condemned the attack or those who celebrated the murder on social media, some of whom he follows,” Neela said.
The other evidence the SIT has, the officer said, was phone call records. “We are sifting through about 7 crore calls over a five-day period leading to the day of the murder,” the officer said.
While a CCTV camera placed above the door of Lankesh’s house has captured the incident, it has not provided police any clues about the perpetrator’s identity. “We have a description of the model of the two-wheeler used by the perpetrator and we are trying to track it,” the officer said.
Finally, the SIT has the four bullets that were recovered from the crime scene — three that hit Lankesh and a fourth that was lodged in a wall.
The forensics science lab in the city had said in a report submitted on September 14 that the weapon used was in the murder a 7.65-mm country made pistol.
According to Neela, it was not important which agency was looking into the matter.
“Of course we want the perpetrators to be caught but we also demand that the forces behind the mercenaries be i dentified,”she said.