Bengaluru: Reiterating that they have full confidence in the 21 member Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the state government to investigate the brutal killing of journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh, writers and activists gathered under the banner of Gauri Lankesh Hatya Virodhi Samiti warned that if the case remains unsolved for a long time, they would knock on the Supreme Court's door.
They said that a petition will be submitted to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) seeking a special team under the Supreme Court guidance to probe the killings of rationalists Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, M.M. Kalburgi and Gauri.
"This is not yet in our to do list of our never ending struggle to get justice. We will wait as the SIT, we believe, is competent enough to crack the case and we have faith in the government. If the case remains unsolved like that of M.M. Kalburgi for a long time, we will move the SC," poet and playwright Chandrashekhar Patil (Champa) stated in a press meet on Sunday.
Asked what made him put his trust in the SIT despite the state failing to bring the killers of Dr Kalburgi to book even after two years, he said that Dr Kalburgi's murder was the first-of-its-kind attack on a progressive thinker in the state and the government had not taken it too seriously. Now, with a similar attack for the second time, the government he believed had taken it as a challenge. He hoped for a swift investigation from the SIT.
Criticising the communal forces for systematic attacks on those who dissent, Karnataka Sahitya Academy awardee B.T. Lalitha Naik said that such attacks on progressive thinkers and rationalists were against the Indian Constitution.
"The British did not kill Gandhi, who had a major role in ousting them from India, but he was killed by our own people. This dangerous trend is again raising its head," she said.
The Samiti is holding a grand national level convention on September 12 at Central College Grounds starting from 11 am to condemn the killing of Lankesh.
