Gauri Lankesh case: We know the killers, we know it all, claims Ramalinga Reddy

Bengaluru: Nearly a month after journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh was shot dead in a chilling murder here on September 5, state Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy has claimed that the SIT probing the incident is much closer to finding the killer than before.

"We know who has done it (the killing) and what.... everything we know," Reddy told reporters at Chikkaballapur, 35 kms from here, on Sunday.

On Tuesday, he told Deccan Chronicle that the investigators were taking it step by step as they did not want to alert the killers. "We do not want the perpetrators to destroy the evidence. Therefore, we are not coming before the public on the information and leads that we have got in the Gauri case," Mr Reddy told Deccan Chronicle.

High level sources in the home department however told this newspaper that the " killers of Gauri Lankesh had committed multiple mistakes while executing the crime." The highly placed sources in the home department said that unlike the M.M.Kalburgi case which had no leads at all, the mistakes by the Gauri Lankesh assassins, were many and had left multiple leads. "As a result, they had left several clues." a source pointed out. “This has helped the investigators to make progress in cracking the case," sources said.

Mr Reddy, however, refused to divulge further details, saying the Special Investigation Team was gathering evidence. "We have got clues, but we cannot share this with the media now because we should have correct evidence and verify the clues we have got,” he said. “If there is no proper evidence when we file the chargesheet in the court, it won't stand. So we are trying to collect the proper evidence.”

He was speaking ahead of a major rally calling for Justice for Gauri in New Delhi on October 5. He said his comments had no bearing on the upcoming rally.