Bengaluru: The Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is probing the murder case of activist-journalist Gauri Lankesh, will also investigate the January 25 blast at Prakash Theatre in Belagavi, where the much-hyped film ‘Padmavat’ was being screened.
Some unknown bike-borne miscreants had allegedly hurled a Molotov cocktail outside the theatre on January 25 around 9.30 pm. Eyewitnesses told
the police that the bomb had burnt like a ball of fire before it exploded.
Fortunately, there were no casualty or injuries reported. The unknown fringe Right group, which is allegedly behind the murders of rationalists in Karnataka and Maharashtra, is said to be behind the blast outside Prakash Theatre in Belagavi and Bhanu Sagar Talkies in Kalyan in Thane district of Maharashtra.
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), on a tipoff from the Karnataka SIT, had arrested Vaibhav Raut, Sharad Kalaskar and Sudhanva Gondhalekar on August 10 in the Nalasopara arms haul case and had seized huge amounts of weapons and illicit firearms. During the investigation, the ATS, after obtaining information from Kalaskar’s computer, had unearthed the conspiracy to carry out blasts at the two theatres and the hugely popular ‘Sunburn’ music festival in Pune in 2017.
According to sources, Kalaskar and Gondhalekar, who are in SIT custody for interrogation in the Gauri murder case, were reportedly behind the Prakash
Theatre blast.
