Bengaluru: Investigations into the murder of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh has brought to light a whole web of information. The most recent revelation has been that six men, including well-educated individuals, were given firearms training in a field at Jamboti village in the Belagavi district. The owner of the agricultural plot is the 12th accused in the case, Bharat Kurne.
Kurne (37), who is currently in the custody of the Special Investigation Team (SIT), was arrested last week and is reported to have allowed the conspirators to convert his field into a training ground. The SIT also discovered that Rajesh Bangera, who was arrested in Madikeri last month, was the main trainer.
TOI has quoted SIT sources saying that the men were trained during April-May 2013, a few months before rationalist Narendra Dhabolkar was murdered in Pune. Bangera, who was the personal assistant of a local politician in Madikeri, had trained shooters to hold a loaded pistol and aim at moving targets while running. They were also trained to aim for the head or face of the target for maximum lethal force, TOI reported.
After the family members of scholar MM Kalburgi identified Amol Kale as the person who knocked on the door asking for the professor, Karnataka’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID), who are probing his murder, is expected to take custody of the four arrested in the Lankesh murder case for questioning. The SIT believes that three of the other accused were with Kale when he went to Prof Kalburgi’s house, said sources.
