Sanathan Sanstha says no role in Gauri Lankesh killing

Hindu outfit Sanatan Sanstha today denied any role in the killing of activist-journalist Gauri Lankesh outside her home, calling the allegations against the group an effort to "falsely implicate" it.

Lankesh, a journalist known for her anti-right wing views, was shot dead by unknown assailants in Bengaluru on September 5.

Her assassination came days after the second anniversary of the killing of noted Kannada writer and rationalist M M Kalburgi, who fell to bullets fired by two unidentified men at his residence at Dharwad in north Karnataka on August 30, 2015.

Denying any involvement in Lankesh's killing, the Sanstha's national spokesperson Chetan Rajhans said they were ready to cooperate with the Special Investigating Team (SIT) probing the case.

"Earlier, in the Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar assassination cases, too, the left-leaning intellectuals, media and politicians, had dragged the name of the Sanstha, but the investigating authorities have not found any evidence against us," he told PTI.

"There is a similar effort by these brigades to falsely implicate and malign our name in the Gauri case, too," he said.

Dhabolkar, a rationalist, was shot dead in Pune in 2013 and Pansare, a CPI leader, was killed in a similar manner in 2015.

"I request the Left-leaning ideologues to stay away from  pressuring SIT. Let them do their job," he added. The Sanstha wanted to cooperate with the SIT in the case, he said and sought a fair investigation.

The state government had, on September 6, announced a 21 -member SIT to investigate the killing of Lankesh.