Gauri Lankesh killing: After failing in his ventures, Naveen turned gunrunner

Bengaluru: Hardline Hindutva activist K.T. Naveen alias Hotte Manja, who is one of the accused in journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh’s murder, is a college dropout and chose to sell firearms as his earlier ventures failed, reads his confessional statement to the police. Naveen completed his PUC from Bharati College in K.M. Doddi and enrolled for the B.Com course at JSS College, Mysuru. But he dropped out in first year and took a dealership of drip-irrigation systems in Maddur.

He used to stay in Maddur for a day or two and then return to his village, Beeruru. After the drip-irrigation business failed, he started off as a moneylender, but soon realised that didn’t work either. He then chose to get into the illegal arms trade and started travelling to Ooty in Tamil Nadu frequently. During one of his visits, he was introduced to a gun dealer, who sold illegal revolvers and cartridges. Naveen decided to buy cartridges at a low cost from the gun dealer and sell them at a higher price to customers. He purchased 21 live cartridges of various sizes for Rs 50,000 from his Ooty contact, he has stated.

On February 18, he took five of the 21 bullets to Bengaluru to find prospective customers. He landed at Bus Terminal 1 at Majestic and was caught by the Upparpet police on suspicion. The bullets, his mobile phone and petty cash were seized by the police. Naveen has told the police that the remaining bullets were at his home in Beeruru. He has stated that he did not know the name, contact or address of the gun dealer from Ooty, but has told the police that he could take them to the gun dealer’s place in Ooty.