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37-year-old man taken into custody by SIT for questioning in Gauri Lankesh murder case
Lankesh, 55, the Editor of “Lankesh Patrike”, was shot dead outside her residence in the city’s southwestern suburb by unidentified assailants on September 5 last year.
A 37-year-old man was on Friday taken into custody by a Special Investigation Team in connection with the murder of Kannada journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh.
A senior official said the suspect, KT Naveen Kumar, was arrested by the Bengaluru Police on February 18 for possessing 15 rounds of .32 calibre cartridges. Kumar hails from Maddur in Mandya district and had in 2015 founded a radical right-wing group called the Hindu Yuva Sene, which the official quoted above said appeared not to be affiliated to any other organisation.
Lankesh, 55, the editor of “Lankesh Patrike”, was shot dead outside her house in Bengaluru by unidentified assailants on September 5 last year. The incident was captured on a CCTV installed in the area, but the suspect was wearing a helmet.
The state government had set up the SIT to probe the Lankesh’s murder.
While the SIT has questioned Kumar in the past, the senior officer said further interrogation was required. “He was definitely an accomplice but he does not seem to have had any major role in the murder,” the officer said.
“We had received a tip-off about Kumar, and we shared the information with the city police, which arrested him. Upon interrogation, it was found that he was an accomplice in the crime and hence we sought custody,” the officer said.
