Bengaluru: Home Minister Ramlinga Reddy on Thursday said the Special Investigating Team (SIT) have started investigation and expressed hope of nabbing the assailant who shot dead senior journalist and Kannada tabloid editor Gauri Lankesh at her residence on September 5, which had raised a storm across the country.
“SIT members have started their investigation into Gauri Lankesh murder case, and state government is hopeful of nabbing the assailant as soon as possible,” Reddy told reporters here.
Yesterday, the government had announced the formation of 21-member SIT team, with IGP Intelligence B K Singh heading the team and DCP (West) M N Anucheth assuming charge as the Investigating Officer to probe the case.
Replying to a query, Reddy said the Inquiring Officer has been given full freedom to probe the matter and make public information as and when required.
Asked whether the police have given some hints on the ideological identity of the assailant based on prima facie evidence gathered by them, Reddy said, “The duty of SIT members is to investigate and nab the assailant. They may have some prima facie evidence, but they have the prerogative of not making it public.”
He further said the police are screening the seized CCTV footage which was fixed at location where the murder took place.
Replying to a query, Reddy said senior police officials are working on getting some more leads into the killing of progressive Kannada writer MM Kalburgi and government is hopeful of cracking this case as well.
“The Kalburgi case has come to a stage, but we still need to gather evidence. Senior officials are working on it. I am hopeful that the government will solve this case as well, as 99 per cent of such cases across the country have been solved, and this will be no exception either,” he said.
Asked was there any political compulsion for deciding against CBI probe into the case, Reddy said, “Who said this? We are open minded, and that is what the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told. If we feel the case is needed to be probed by CBI, we would hand it over to it, as we did in officer DK Ravi’s case.”
“No, there was neither political compulsion, nor the tardy nature of CBI probe,” he added.
Fifty five-year old Gauri Lankesh, known as an anti-establishment voice with strident anti-right-wing views, was shot dead at close range by unknown assailants at her home here on September 5.
