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Gauri Lankesh trial: Witness identifies person who bought bullets
The first witness (names of witnesses are being withheld as per court orders) presented before the special Karnataka control of organised crimes act court identified cartridges and one bullet that were recovered from the crime scene.
The prosecution on Tuesday presented two witnesses in the Gauri Lankesh murder case before a special Bengaluru court that resumed hearing on Monday.
Lankesh, a journalist and activist, was shot dead on the night of September 5, 2017, in front of her Rajarajeshwari Nagar home in Bengaluru.
The first witness (names of witnesses are being withheld as per court orders) presented before the special Karnataka control of organised crimes act (KCOCA) court identified cartridges and one bullet that were recovered from the crime scene.
The cartridges recovered from the scene not only hold importance to the case but are also key in the investigation into the murders of three rationalists. In their investigation, a special investigation team (SIT) had unearthed a link between the murders of rationalists MM Kalburgi, Govind Pansare and Narendra Dhabolkar.
According to SIT officials, the trial of the Lankesh case will have an impact on the into the rationalists murder case investigations, which have not progressed.
In the initial days of the investigation, the SIT found a connection between the murders of Lankesh and Kalburgi, who was killed on August 30, 2015 in Kalaburagi. The four bullets and cartridges recovered from Lankesh’s house matched the slugs and cartridges in Kalburgi’s murder. Forensic labs found that the bullets were fired from the same gun.
The second witness on Tuesday identified accused number 17 (A-17) KT Naveen Kumar. The witness, who works at a gun shop in Bengaluru, told the KCOCA court that A-17 had purchased air pistols and some live ammunition from him.
Kumar, a resident of Maddur in Mandya, was the first person to be arrested as part of the probe. The Central Crime Branch, acting on a tip off that Kumar was illegally trying to sell .32 mm cartridges in Bengaluru’s Cottonpete, arrested him on February 18, 2018 and recovered 15 rounds of cartridges from him.
Lankesh’s sister, Kavita, also the complainant in the case, was deposed before the KCOCA court on Monday. She told the court that suspicious people were moving around the house (before the murder), but they had not taken it seriously as they were unaware of the gravity of the situation.
She told the court that on September 5, 2017, she went to Gauri’s house after hearing that her sister had collapsed in front of her house. She later learnt that Gauri was murdered and recounted the murder scene and how she saw more than one cartridge.
The witness examination in the case will continue on Wednesday.
