Bengaluru: The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) will soon interrogate some of the accused in the Gauri Lankesh murder case to find out their involvement in the murder of Kannada scholar M.M. Kalburgi. So far, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) has arrested 12 people in the Gauri case. They are lodged in judicial custody at Bengaluru Central Prison at Parapanna Agrahara.
According to official sources, the CID has taken the permission of the jurisdictional court in Dharwad, where the case was registered, to interrogate the accused – Amol Kale alias Bhaisahab, Ganesh Miskin, Rajesh Bangera, Amit Degwekar, Sujeet Kumar alias Praveen alias Manjunath alias Sujeet S.R. and Manohar Edave. “If the CID finds the involvement of any of them in the Kalburgi case, they will approach the court for their body warrant,” said the officer.
Prof Kalburgi was shot dead at the entrance of his house in Dharwad on August 30, 2015. “Kale is allegedly at the heart of all the four murder plots of rationalists including Kalburgi. Miskin had reportedly driven the motorcycle in both the murder cases. He had ferried Parshuram Waghmare, who reportedly fired four bullets at Gauri, three of which hit her. Miskin had also allegedly driven Sujeet, who reportedly shot Kalburgi point blank. Miskin had waited on the motorcycle a few yards away and later drove away with the shooters in both the cases,” said the officer.
Bangera (50), a government employee in the education department in Madikeri, is allegedly the arms and ammunition supplier to the group, which is behind the assassination plots. He had also reportedly trained the youths recruited by Amol Kale (37) – a former Pune coordinator of Hindu Janajagruti Samiti and his associates from the Hindutva group for the covert operations.
Manohar Edave from Vijaypura was allegedly in charge of the recruitment wing in Karnataka.
Amit Degwekar alias Pradeep (39) is the only accused in Gauri murder case, whose address reflects the address of Sanatan Sanstha in Ponda, Goa. He is said to be one of the alleged “financial” links between the organisers of hit list and the Right wing infantry, which was let loose on the liberal and progressive thinkers in Maharashtra and Karnataka.
