Gauri Lankesh's assassin identified, underground gang behind murder spread in 5 states: SIT official

The gang involved in the murder of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh has a wide network spread across at least five states and comprised at least 60 people, a senior police official said today.

The official belonging to the Special Investigation Team that is probing the sensational case, meanwhile, claimed that Parashuram Waghmare, the last of the six suspects arrested in connection with the killing, was her alleged assassin.

The official also claimed that the same weapon was used to shoot Lankesh, and rationalists Govind Pansare and M M Kalburgi.

He said the organised gang refrained from giving any specific name to their underground organisation.

Claiming that the organisation was composed of people drawn from Hindu right groups, the official said it had around 60 members spread across at least five states but had no name.

"We discovered that this gang has a network in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka," the official said.

He said though the gang recruited people from hardline Hindutva organisations like Maharashtra-based Hindu Jagruti Samiti and Sanatan Sanstha, these outfits may not be directly responsible for the killings.

Both the organisations had denied their role in the killing of Lankesh, Pansare and Kalburgi.

Sujith Kumar alias Praveen used to recruit people for his gang in Karnataka, the official said, adding, it was through him that the entire network was busted including the alleged shooter Parashuram Waghmare from his home at Sindagi in Karnataka.

"Waghmare had shot Lankesh and the forensic report has confirmed that (rationalists) Govind Pansare, M M Kalburgi and Lankesh were murdered with the same weapon," he claimed. He, however, said the weapon was yet to be traced.

Forensic examination can lead to such a conclusion when the hammer of a gun has left identical marks at the rear of a bullet even if the weapon itself has not been found.

Waghmare's family has denied his involvement in the crime.

Police suspect the involvement of at least three more people in the murder. Hunt is on to find them.

The investigators also found out that the suspects used to carry out their work in a phased manner. It involved recce, weaknesses of the person (target) and finally executing the plan, the official said.

"The process of accomplishing the mission used to take six months to a year. The gang had almost reached the last phase of killing Prof K S Bhagawan (Kannada writer) when we nabbed them," he said.

Bhagwan had often angered the right-wing outfits with his writings and utterances against Hindu Gods.

Police had uncovered the plot to kill Bhagwan recently and arrested four men, whose suspected role in the Lankesh murder case is also being investigated.

Jnanpith recipient Girish Karnad, who acted in multi-lingual movies too, was in the hit list. His surveillance was in the last phase, he said.

The diary found from this gang revealed that other than Bhagavan and Karnad, former minister and literatteur B T Lalitha Naik, rationalist C S Dwarakanath and pontiff Veerabhadra Channamalla Swamy of Nidumamidi Mutt were also in the hit list for their anti-Hindutva stance.

Lankesh, who was known for her anti-Hindutva voice, was shot dead on September 5 evening when she returned home in her car and was opening the gate of her house. The murder triggered a nationwide outrage. Government constituted the special investigation team to probe the murder.

The team led by inspector general of police B K Singh has so far arrested six people, who are gun runner K T Naveen Kumar alias Hotte Manja, Sujith Kumar, Amol Kale, Manohar Edve, Amit Degvekar and Parashuram Waghmare.