Gauri Lankesh murder accused arrested from Jharkhand, sent to 4 days’ transit remand
The SIT, along with Dhanbad police, arrested the accused on Thursday night from the Katras area where he had been working under a false identity. The accused was produced before Dhanbad chief judicial magistrate (CJM) Arjun Saw on Friday.
A man accused in the Gauri Lankesh murder case arrested in Jharkhand on Thursday was sent to four days’ transit remand with a special investigation team (SIT) of Bengaluru police by a Dhanbad court on Friday. The accused Rajesh Devrikar aka Murli aka Shiva was the 18th person to be arrested.
The SIT, along with Dhanbad police, arrested the accused on Thursday night from the Katras area where he had been working under a false identity. The accused was produced before Dhanbad chief judicial magistrate (CJM) Arjun Saw on Friday.
The SIT produced the accused in court amid heavy security, prior to which he was taken to Patliputra Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) for a medical examination. According to the directive by the court, the accused will have to be produced before a competent court soon after reaching Bengaluru.
“The Bengaluru police SIT arrested one of the several accused who was hiding in Dhanbad under a false identity,” Dhanbad senior superintendent of police Kishore Kaushal said.
The accused had been residing in Katras as a caretaker of a building owned by a businessman of Dhanbad, Pradeep Khemka, for the past several months.
Khemka said the man was provided the job on a Goa-based friend’s recommendation. “I was not aware of his criminal antecedents,” Khemka said.
Devrikar had been living near Rajgadhia Market in Katras from where he was picked up by the SIT after it kept an eye on his movements for around a week. “The SIT zeroed in on him on the basis of his mobile location. Police also searched his room for clues,” said SSP Kaushal .
Journalist Gauri Lankesh was murdered in 2017 and a case under IPC sections 302 (murder), 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy), 114 (abettor present when offence is committed), 118 (concealing design to commit offence punishable with death or imprisonment for life),109 (abetment if the act abetted is committed in consequence and where no express provision is made for its punishment), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender), 203 (giving false information with respect to an offence committed), 204 (destruction of a document to prevent its production as evidence), among others.
