Waghmare killed Lankesh, his outfit has footprints in 5 states, says SIT

BENGALURU: Parashuram Waghmare, the last of the six suspects arrested in connection with the killing of journalist Gauri Lankesh, was her assassin, the SIT probing the murder said Friday.

A senior official in the Special Investigation Team also said the same weapon was used to shoot Lankesh, and rationalists Govind Pansare and MM Kalburgi.

The official said the weapon was yet to be traced. Forensic examination can arrive at such conclusions when the hammer of a gun has left identical marks at the rear of a bullet even if the weapon itself has not been found.

The official said the organisation, of which Waghmare was a member along with some 60 others, composed of people from Hindu right groups, and didn’t have a name. “We discovered that this gang has a network in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka. We did not find their Uttar Pradesh connection so far,” the official said.

He said this organisation recruited people from Hindutva outfits like Maharashtra-based Hindu Jagruti Samiti and Sanatan Sanstha. Both outfits denied their role in the three murders.

Sujith Kumar alias Praveen used to recruit people for the gang, the official said. The SIT, he said, suspected three more were involved in the killing of Lankesh, who was shot dead at the entrance of her Bengaluru residence on September 5 last year.

“The gang had almost reached the last phase of killing Prof KS Bhagawan (Kannada writer) when we nabbed them,” the officer said.

The Karnataka police had uncovered the plot to kill Bhagwan recently, and it was during the interrogation of the four arrested accused that they grew suspicious about their involvement in Lankesh’s killing.