BENGALURU: The investigating teams suspect that the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh was a well planned one. While it is said that two men followed Gauri's car on a bike, one was waiting at her residence.
"Usually, she left office and reached home only after 9 pm. But on Tuesday, she was early by an hour. But still the assailants managed to get her, which suggests that there was a proper ground work by them," an official said.
The location was an advantage for the assailants as the road was poorly lit and has many cross roads.
There are no houses for more than 100 metres on both sides of her house as 3-4 sites are vacant.
In front of her house there are two under-construction apartments and no one had reportedly seen the assailants. In addition the roads were sparsely lit. While there is one street light is front of her house, the next one is around 400 metres away. The locality also has many cross roads, making it easy for the assailants to escape.
No eyewitnesses to shooting: Dutta
There are no eyewitness accounts of who shot eminent journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh. Speaking to this newspaper, Director General and Inspector General of Police R.K. Dutta said that Gauri's neighbours heard gunshots and they came out to see what happened.
They found Gauri lying outside her house in a pool of blood and they immediately informed the police.
“In the absence of any eyewitness, we cannot say for sure how many assailants were there and how they had come. I’m told that there is a CCTV camera near the entrance of Gauri’s house. If it is there, the CCTV footage will help in the investigation,” said the state police chief. He said that Gauri had met him on few occasions regarding surrender of Naxalites.
“She never mentioned that there was a threat to her life,” he said. Gauri was on the state committee for the surrender and rehabilitation of Left wing extremists in the state.
In June, she had facilitated the surrender of three former Naxalites, including a woman Kanyakumari, in Chikkamagluru.
