Gauri Lankesh was not planning to write about 2014 LS poll rigging: Kavita Lankesh

Bengaluru: The family and a close associate of the late journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh have rubbished the claims of a self-styled Indian cyber expert Syed Shuja (not his real name) that Gauri was killed because she was planning to write about the alleged rigged 2014 Lok Sabha polls - a story he had shared with her. 

"It's utter nonsense. Gauri was not planning to write on any of this (the alleged rigged elections). She had never heard from any person by the name of Syed Shuja. She was concerned about the issues surrounding the EVMs like secrecy and transparency like many others, but she never spoke about the EVMs being manipulated. Shuja has alleged that Gauri had filed an RTI on the controversial issue, which is not true. What he said is absolute bakwas (rubbish)," said the late editor-activist's colleague and associate Shiv Sundar.  

In a video conference on Monday in London, Shuja had made wild allegations that the BJP in 2014 had got a huge mandate of 282 seats after the party manipulated the electronic voting machines (EVMs) and that he had shared the details with Gauri, the late BJP leader Gopinath Munde and a TV anchor. Shuja alleged that Gauri and Munde were killed because they knew about the rigged polls. 

"His (Shuja's) statements regarding Gauri are not true. She had her concerns about the EVMs and she discussed it with me, but for someone to allege that she was killed because of what he had allegedly told her is nonsense. Gauri didn't know Shuja," said her sister and well-known filmmaker Kavita Lankesh.