SIT makes second arrest in Gauri Lankesh murder case, says ToI report

The Karnataka Police Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case of murder of Kannada newspaper journalist and editor Gauri Lankesh, has reportedly detained another man this week, reported the Times of India on May 11.

The accused, said ToI quoting police sources, is also suspected to be involved in the killing of scholars MM Kalburgi and Narendra Dabholkar, murdered in August 2015 and August 2013, respectively. The report further said, quoting police sources, that the arrested person was hatching another conspiracy to kill an influential politician from Hyderabad-Karnataka region. Although not named, the security for the politician has been beefed up, as per the ToI report.

Noted journalist Gauri Lankesh was shot dead outside her residence in Rajajeshwarinagar in Bengaluru on September 5, 2017. Earlier on March 9, the SIT had arrested 37-year-old KT Naveen Kumar based on SIT’s interrogation of the gunrunner. Naveen was first arrested by the Central Crime Branch and was handed over to a local police station which had pending cases against him, said the report.

After questioning Naveen from March 3 to 8, the SIT decided to arrest him as the investigators claimed that Naveen was directly part of the killing team and he had provided weapons training to some of them. The SIT, in April, had planned to conduct a narco-analysis test on Naveen, but he refused to co-operate with the authorities and the test was not conducted, , said the ToI report.

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