Gauri Lankesh killers' identity to be revealed soon: K'taka Home Minister
Bengaluru: Karnataka Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy on Saturday said that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Karnataka Police had identified the persons involved in the murder of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh, who was shot dead outside her home on September 5.
The SIT is within striking distance of those involved in the murder and the results of the investigation will be evident later this month, Karnataka Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy said, reported The Indian Express.
“Unlike in the murder cases of (Narendra) Dabholkar and (Govind) Pansare (in Maharashtra), the SIT has definite clues and knows the identities of the people behind the murder of Gauri Lankesh. Their identities will be revealed this month,’’ said Reddy.
The Indian Express reported that its sources in the SIT confirmed that they had made a breakthrough in the case by identifying its key components and also the individuals involved in it, the report added.
Four people have been identified and technical data is awaited, which will further clear all doubts.
Lankesh's brutal murder was captured on the CCTV outside her home.
During investigation, the SIT found that her killers researched the surroundings of her home not only on the day of the murder, but also a few weeks prior to it, the report added.
#WATCH CCTV footage of one of the suspects in #GauriLankesh case. Police say, he was conducting recce before the murder. pic.twitter.com/6jfNJjMO5e
— ANI (@ANI) October 14, 2017
In a major turn of events, last months, the SIT had released the sketches of suspects who may have been involved in the killing.
The SIT is of the view that the killers belonged to another state, who later returned post-murder, the report added. Whether the killers were provided with local assistance in Bengaluru is being investigated.
In spite of carrying out an extensive survey of the illegal arms racket in the region, with the help of police in Vijayapura district of Karnataka, the SIT has not yet found a lead in identifying the source of the 7.65 mm country-made pistol and ammunition used to kill Lankesh.
A key finding by the SIT has been the forensic evidence that the 7.65 mm country-made gun used to kill Lankesh was the one, which was used to kill Kannada scholar M M Kalburgi in Dharwad on August 30, 2015.
This has further led to the theory that both of them were killed by the same set of people.
