Mangaluru: Criticising the deteriorating law and order situation in the state, in the aftermath of the several murders, noted Kannada filmmaker and publisher Indrajit Lankesh lamented that few leaders stoop to low levels of playing political games over a dead man’s body and do not desist to give it a communal colour for their own gains.
He was addressing a press meet here on Tuesday, January 9 after visiting the house of Deepak Rao, who was brutally murdered on January 3. Indrajit, who recently lost his sister Gauri Lankesh, a renowned journalist-activist said that he could see the same pain on Deepak’s mother’s face, as he had seen in his mother, both having lost their beloved ones. “It’s very painful to lose a family member,” he said while addding that he would be visiting the family of Basheer, who was murdered to avenge Deepak’s death later in the day and that of Danamma, a Dalit girl who was raped in Vijaypura on Thursday.
While Lankesh has offered financial assitance to Deepak’s family he asked if the government can merely wash off its responsibilty by offering compensation to thwart protests of any kind.
Hinting at a political involvement behind the repeated murders in the state, he questioned the government’s failure in booking the real cuprits/masterminds who are executing these murders either for their own gains or to fuel unrest in the society. “The investigations seem to end with the arrest of the killers, but what about the person orchestrating them,” he questioned while expressing displeasure in the lethargic manner of the probe into Gauri’s murder.
It has been four months and no arrests made, despite government claims of knowing the culprits. Why?, asked Lankesh
He, however urged people not to give such instances a communal colour and also requested people to pass on any information they may have regarding the murders to the police.
