A seventh person has been arrested by the special investigation team probing the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh, a senior police officer said.
“The SIT has arrested one person, Mohan Nayak, aged 50, from Dakshina Kannada district,” a senior official of the SIT said. “He was arrested on July 18, and was produced before the [magistrate], and has been taken into six days police custody,” the officer said, requesting anonymity. Police refused to confirm Nayak’s role in the conspiracy as it could be prejudicial to the investigation.
This is the seventh arrest in the case of the murder of Lankesh, who was gunned down outside her house on September 5. Earlier, the police had arrested Parashuram Waghmare, KT Naveen Kumar, Amol Kale, Manohar Edve, Sujeeth Kumar alias Praveen and Amit Degvekar.
Naveen Kumar, the first person arrested in this case, proved to be the crucial link in helping police to identify the alleged culprits who planned and carried out the murder. Kumar, a resident of Maddur, was believed to have contacts with extreme right-wing groups, through which he got in touch with the others. Two of the accused, Amol Kale and Amit Degvekar, hail from Maharashtra.
The SIT made a breakthrough after it came across a plot to kill Kannada writer and rationalist KS Bhagawan. It was in that connection that the police initially picked up Naveen Kumar.