Lankesh murder probe goes on
SIT INVESTIGATION Twelve people arrested in connection with the murder so far and evidence points to links with killings of three others; lawyers of accused say no evidence presented by the inquiry team
A year ago to the day, journalist Gauri Lankesh was entering her house in Bengaluru’s Rajarajeshwari Nagar after returning from work when she was shot and killed by three unidentified men.
A special investigating team (SIT) formed to inquire into the killing has since claimed to have completed its probe, arrested 12 suspects and unearthed a shadowy organisation it has linked to the crime and the murder of three other individuals, all of whom campaigned against superstition and espoused rationalism.
Lankesh, who was 55 and ran the eponymous Gauri Lankesh Patrike, was an outspoken critic of Hindu fundamentalism and known for upholding women’s rights. Interviews with SIT officers and documents submitted in court by the police reveal that the plot to kill her had been afoot for a year; the reason why she was targeted were the public comments she made that were perceived to be disrespectful of the Hindu religion, the officials say.
Progress in the investigation was, at least initially, slow. To be sure, within the first month, detectives confirmed that the bullets recovered from the scene matched those recovered from the murder scene of scholar MM Kalburgi, who was shot dead at his house in Karnataka’s Dharwad district on August 30, 2015.
Yet, initial attempts to piece together evidence, apart from the bullets, did not yield major breakthroughs. The crime was caught on a closed circuit television (CCTV) camera placed near the door to Lankesh’s house, but few clues surfaced from the footage. The man who shot Lankesh was wearing a helmet and couldn’t be identified.
Attempts to trace phone records in the area in the hope that they would provide clues to the murder led to a dead-end. The police had a call log of around a million phone calls that nearby cell phone towers had recorded.
SIT then decided to concentrate on more traditional methods of surveillance and chasing all possible angles into the murder, many of which led nowhere.
As pressure mounted from the public, the media and from within the police force, SIT got hold of the first vital intelligence input on the murder.
A senior officer, requesting anonymity, said SIT received information in November that a man identified as KT Naveen Kumar had been missing since Lankesh’s murder. Kumar, a native of Maddur in Mandya district, was traced to a village in Chikkamagaluru district, and was put under surveillance.
“We noticed that he was frequenting many coin phone booths. He used as many as 128 coin booths since we began surveillance. We narrowed it down to six booths that he frequented,” the officer said.
Intercepting these calls led SIT to confirm that Naveen Kumar had information on the Gauri Lankesh murder plot. “We also intercepted a call between Naveen and another person that gave us a clue that another murder was being planned,” the officer cited above said.
ARRESTS FOLLOW
This was the alleged plot to kill rationalist writer KS Bhagwan, known for his strong views on Hinduism. “We soon realised that this plot was already underway and reconnaissance had been conducted. For this reason we decided to pick him (Naveen Kumar) up,” the officer said.
Naveen Kumar was arrested on February 18 in Bengaluru, allegedly in possession of ammunition that he was about to sell. With this arrest, SIT was able to gather details of other suspects.
On May 20, the police arrested Sujith Kumar alias Praveen, the person liaising with Naveen Kumar from Kolar.
The clues Sujith provided investigators helped SIT arrest Amol Kale, a resident of Pune and believed to be the mastermind of the killings, and Amit Degwekar, also a resident of Maharasthra and the second suspected mastermind, from Davanagere in Karnataka. Additionally, the police also arrested Manohar Edave, a resident of Vijayapura, who it says played a key role in recruiting the killers.
Through interrogations of these people and using digital analysis of the footage gathered from Lankesh’s house, the police were able to identify Parashuram Waghmare as the person who shot Lankesh.
Subsequently, Amit Baddi and Ganesh Miskin, who is suspected to have ferried Waghmare to the murder scene on a two-wheeler, Rakesh Bangera, who allegedly trained the shooter, Mohan Naik, Suresh and Bharat Kurane, were also picked up by the police.
BENGALURU:
THE EVIDENCE
The first link in the chain of evidence was the confirmation of the ballistics report that the same weapon had been used to kill Lankesh and Kalburgi. “However, we did not want to follow only that one lead ... We wanted to catch the actual killers, which was our task,” the SIT officer cited above said.
During Kale’s arrest, SIT secured a diary that allegedly belonged to him that proved to be vital in cracking the case. “It wasn’t easy because entries in the diary were made using codes,” the officer said. “Additionally, apart from Kale and Degwekar, none of the other accused knew each other by name,” he said.
As the investigation progressed, the SIT became aware a shadowy organisation, with Kale at its helm, had been behind Lankesh’s murder.
“We realised that we were dealing here with a well-oiled organisation because the planning was meticulous...” the SIT officer said. According to him, Kale took over as the head of the organisation after the arrest of Virendra Tawde in connection with the murder of rationalist Narenedra Dabholkar on 20 August 2013, in Pune.
SIT has not yet filed a charge sheet in the case. Lawyers representing the accused say that there is not a shred of evidence so far. A Vedamurthy, counsel for Naveen Kumar, said it had been almost five months since his client was arrested. “Initially it was claimed that Naveen had provided the ammunition for the murder. This was dropped subsequently. Then it was claimed that he had conducted a recce in the area, which was also dropped eventually. So, the SIT is only playing for time here,” he said.