Gauri Lankesh murder probe unearths MM Kalburgi's killers
Forensics lab had examined the bullets and catridges in both cases. They claim that they were fired from same gun.
Bengaluru: The killer duo, who had assassinated the noted Kannada scholar - Prof. M.M. Kalburgi has reportedly been identified by the police close to three years after he was shot dead inside his house in Dharwad on August 30, 2015.
The accused number two in the Gauri Lankesh murder case - Sujeet Kumar alias Praveen alias Manjunath alias Sujeet S. R. (37) from Udupi had reportedly shot at the late Prof. Kalburgi and accused number eight in the Gauri case - Ganesh Miskin (27) from Hubbali - had allegedly ferried Praveen on the motorcycle on that fateful day in August, said top sources, who didn't wish to be named.
"Miskin, who was reportedly riding the bike, had stopped it outside Prof Kalburgi's house and Praveen had gone inside the house pretending to be Prof Kalburgi's student. He shot him in point blank and the duo sped away on the motorcycle," the source added.
Two years later Miskin was allegedly hired again to play the same role in the Gauri murder case. This time he reportedly ferried Parshuram Waghmore - Gauri's alleged shooter from Sindagi - on the evening of September 5, 2017, when he reportedly fired four rounds of bullets at Gauri outside her house in Rajarajsehwari Nagar. Three of those bullets had claimed her life," added the source.
Praveen is currently in judicial custody in the Gauri murder case.
Miskin and Amit Baddi - the ninth accused in the same case were remanded in police custody for 14 days on July 23 by the Third ACMM court. According to SIT, Miskin and Baddi have reportedly destroyed the key evidence - the firearm and the motorcycle.
The Forensic Science Laboratory, Madiwala had last year examined the four bullets and cartridges in the Gauri case and the two bullets and cartridges in Kalburgi case and had submitted in their report that all the six bullets were fired from the same 7.65mm country made pistol.
The FSL ballistic report was submitted to the court by the SIT along with the first chargesheet against accused number one - K.T. Naveen Kumar, who was arrested in March.
Praveen originally hails from Kappanahalli, Shikaripur in Shivamogga district. He is a bachelor and lived in a rented house in Udupi.
According to the SIT, he has been a right wing hardliner since 2000 and had allegedly 'recruited' Naveen for a global Hindu conclave in Goa in June 2017. The Kalburgi murder case is being investigated by the Criminal Investigation Department.