Amidst Speculation on Gauri Lankesh’s Killers, SIT Begins Probe

Theories have alleged right-wing extremists, Naxals and religious groups murdered her. But SIT focuses on evidence.

Since the assassination of journalist Gauri Lankesh, there has been intense speculation over who her killers are. Even before the investigation gained pace, fingers were pointed at right-wing extremists who opposed Gauri’s anti-Hindutva stand.

These claims were followed by allegations that the Naxalite movement in Karnataka was behind the attack. This theory hinged on the fact that Gauri was instrumental in getting Naxalites in the state to surrender and come into the mainstream. Her killing was supposedly in retaliation for her past efforts.

This theory gained traction when one of her family members expressed their opinions on the attack. Indrajit Lankesh, Gauri’s brother on Wednesday alleged that Naxalites were behind the attack. However, a day later he claimed that it was one of the possibilities and the police needs to probe all angles.

At the same time, Kavitha Lankesh, Gauri’s sister said that she suspects the hand of right wing activists as Gauri had been vocal critic. Subsequently, a joint press conference was addressed by both of them stating that these are only their concerns and they will cooperate with the Special Investigation Team.

Those close to Gauri also pointed out that she was also actively campaigning for religious status for Lingayat community, which had gained her enemies as well.

Amidst these theories, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) tasked with the investigation of Lankesh’s murder, on Thursday evening visited her residence at Rajarajeshwari Nagar, in West Bengaluru.

Earlier on Thursday, all the 21 officers assigned to the SIT held a meeting to chart out a plan of investigation. Sources said that the focus of investigation was on footage from 30 CCTV cameras that have been obtained from Gauri’s house and other establishments around the area.

The evidence handed over to the SIT by local police contained the CCTV footage, the post mortem and preliminary ballistic analysis. The team is currently going through the footage to come up with a description of the attackers. However, the clip which shows the attacker wearing his helmet before the attack is proving difficult to create any kind of sketch from.

Sources in the Forensic Sciences Laboratory said preliminary investigation of the cartridges recovered from the crime scene suggested that weapon used was a country made .32mm pistol.