The special investigative team set up to find the killers of journalist Gauri Lankesh has asked the public to share any information they might have to help solve the crime. Gauri Lankesh was murdered at the doorstep of her Bengaluru home on Tuesday night. Footage from CCTV cameras installed by Ms Lankesh showed a man in a dark jacket and helmet shoot her. But almost three days after her death, the police have made little headway.
The 21-member police team has circulated a phone number and email id for people to share any information they might have on the case. “General public is requested, any information on #GauriLankeshkillers. Public can call or email @ 09480800202, sit.glankesh@ksp.gov.in,” the Bengaluru police tweeted.
General public is requested , any information on #GauriLankesh killers. Public can call or email @ 09480800202, sit.glankesh@ksp.gov.in pic.twitter.com/O7HLcGgzgp
— BengaluruCityPolice (@BlrCityPolice) September 7, 2017
The SIT is questioning friends and associates of the journalist and activist to see if they can help with clues. Gauri’s sister, filmmaker Kavitha Lankesh told NDTV that Gauri had spoken to their mother about spotting someone lurking near her house on Sunday last.
The police has visited the scene of the crime and has been examining CCTV footage from around the house and on the roads leading to it. Gauri Lankesh’s brother Indrajit said that when they entered the house on the night of the murder, there was sufficient light from the live output of the CCTV camera to identity anyone.
The police said the helmet that the attacker wore has made identifying him difficult.
Rajarajeshwari Nagar, the neighbourhood in west Bengaluru where Gauri Lankesh lived is sparsely populated and no eyewitnesses have come forward so far. Gauri Lankesh was found lying in a pool of blood by neighbours who live in an apartment complex opposite her home and who said they were at dinner when she was shot. They initially thought they had heard firecrackers go off.
Gauri Lankesh’s siblings have said they believe the fierce, Left-leaning activist was killed because of her ideas. “I would like to say right-wing activism because her own ideology was dead against them. I don’t know, I don’t know, it is not personal I know. It is basically killing a thought. They wanted to kill a thought, kill a movement. I don’t want to pinpoint right now. But from her writing, whoever is against her ideology has killed her,” Kavitha Lankesh told NDTV yesterday.
There is concern that the investigation into Gauri Lankesh’s murder could flounder the way the probe into the 2015 murder of rationalist and scholar MM Kalburgi has. Mr Kalburgi too was shot dead just outside his home in north Karnataka. That was more than two years ago, but the murder is yet to be solved.
