‘Sanatan Sanstha dragged into Gauri case for no reason’
Taking objection to its name being mentioned in connection with the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh, the Sanatan Sanstha on Thursday addressed a press conference here, denying any connection to the incident and blaming “leftists” for bringing disrepute to the organisations.
Lankesh had been gunned down outside her house on September 5. A SIT formed by the state government is looking into the case.
Chetan Rajhans of the Sanstha said the immediate reaction to any such killing was to drag the organisation’s name. “Media organisations have been claiming that the SIT has visited our ashram in Goa, which is completely untrue,” he said. “If they want to question us we are willing to participate.”
Rajhans requested Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah to conduct a fair probe “that is not influenced by politics”.
Condemning Lankesh’s murder, advocate Sanjiv Punalekar, national secretary of the Hindu Vidhidnya Parishad, who has represented members of the SanMaoist stha, said that even before the SIT was formed the Sanstha was being blamed for the murder. Punalekar said this was part of the propaganda about saffron terror that was being spread.
“The outfit is being blamed because of alleged similarities in the modus operandi in the murders of (Narendra) Dabholkar, (Govind) Pansare, (MM) Kalburi and Gauri Lankesh. They say a similar gun was used. But the 7.65mm pistol is the most commonly available gun,” he said.
Accusing the Kolhapur police of malpractice in the probe of Pansare, Veerandra Ichalkaranjikar asked the SIT not to head in the same direction. “The SIT must not fall into the trap laid by the families of Dabholkar and Pansare because they are the ones stoking this controversy,” he said.
Punalekar said there was a angle behind the murders of Pansare and Dabholkar that had not been investigated.
Replying to queries regarding Vinay Pawar, wanted in connection with Dabholkar’s murder, and Rudra Patil, accused in the murder of Kalburgi, Punalekar said anybody named in the cases should come forward. “It is unfortunate that they have absconded but that could be because they do not believe that justice will be done.”
Meanwhile, the SIT is yet to make a significant breakthrough. A senior officer, a part of the SIT, said the painstaking work of the investigation was being carried out; there were some leads but no breakthrough had been made.
“For instance, we are going through around six crore calls made in the area in the five days leading up to the murder. We might get something from this,” he said. “We also have some clues about the vehicle but we do not want to alert the perpetrator about our investigation.”
The officer also denied news reports stating that a sketch of the perpetrator had been prepared by the SIT.