22-year-old youth held for derogatory post over Gauri Lankesh's murder

BENGALURU: A 22-year-old unemployed youth, who had posted a hate message regarding the murder of eminent journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh, has been arrested by the cyber crime police.

The accused has been identified as Mallanagouda Basanagouda Biradar alias Malli, who hailed from Surapura taluk of Yadgir district. A diploma holder in civil engineering, he had a Facebook profile by name Malli Arjun.

Just a few hours after Gauri was shot dead, the accused had put up a post in Kannada ‘Ondu ganji giraakiya hena bitthu, mikka ganji giraakigaligoo ide gati #gauri_lankesh mataash’, which loosely translates as ‘One person with leftist ideology (the words ganji giraaki is used on social media to refer people with leftist ideology) is dead, other such people will also meet the same fate’.

The Cyber Crime police had taken up a suo motu case regarding the post and the profile had similar inflammatory and derogatory posts. The Cyber Crime police along with CCB officials tracked him to Nagarabavi Circle on Wednesday night and arrested him. “When questioned, he confessed to have posted the hate message and said that he had completed Diploma in civil engineering in Lingasagur and had come to Bengaluru in search of job about two months ago. He was staying in the house of his Facebook friend at Nanjarasappa Layout at Chandra Layout in Vijayanagar. He also confessed that he has multiple email IDs and Facebook profiles, and had got a SIM card using fake documents” the police said.

The police have seized the mobile phone and the SIM card used in the offence. He was produced before the 1st ACCM court and has been taken to police custody for seven days for further questioning.