NOT AFRAID OF DEATH THREATS: PRAKASH RAJ
SIT REPORT SAYS GAURI LANKESH KILLERS PLAN TO KILL ACTOR
HYDERABAD: Responding to reports that suggest that he is being targeted by veteran journalist Gauri Lankesh’s killers, actor Prakash Raj on Thursday said he is “not threatened” and that his voice would only grow stronger and that they wouldn’t manage to get away by playing hate politics.
According to an investigation conducted by the SIT probing the Gauri Lankesh murder case, which was shared on a local Kannada news channel, Raj was the next target of Lankesh’s killers, after he had taken to criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP on public platforms.
Meanwhile, KT Naveen Kumar, the first person to be arrested for Lankesh’s murder, has agreed to undergo a narco analysis test as requested by the SIT probing the case.
Kumar’s advocate Vedamurthy said an application will be submitted to this effect before the additional chief metropolitan magistrate’s court.
Making submissions before the court, Vedamurthy alleged that SIT had taken Kumar for a narco analysis test in Gujarat, but it did not inform him, according to the court’s directions.
“It neither took us as accomplice to Kumar for narco analysis in Gujarat, nor conducted any test on him. We were not informed about it also. So by the time our advocate reached Gujarat, the SIT team was ready to leave with Kumar, saying he refused to undergo the test,” he said.
He also alleged that the charge sheet filed by the SIT was full of discrepancies. “Ayaz-UllahSharief, who claimed to have sold bullets to Naveen Kumar, had made a statement that he did so for ₹3,000, but as per a statement of the witness present during the actual transaction, it was sold for ₹20,000,” he said.
So far, six people, including Kumar, have been arrested in the case. Parshuram Waghmare, the last person to be arrested, is believed to have shot Lankesh.