JOIN USThe Special Investigation Team (SIT) has filed a 651-page charge sheet before the III Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court in connection with the killing of senior journalist Gauri Lankesh. However, the SIT has not named any organisation for the killing. SIT officials have recorded statements of 134 witnesses, including family members of Gauri, her friends, office staff, doctors who conducted the postmortem and Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) staff.
The charge sheet stated that even though K T Naveen Kumar, leader of Hindu Yuva Sene, was not directly involved in the case, he accommodated assailants who killed Gauri.
He also showed the house and office of Gauri to the assailants, the police have stated in the charge sheet. According to the police, Naveen Kumar knew all the accused in the case but has been trying to mislead the investigation and also refused to undergo narco analysis test.
It is further stated in the charge sheet that Naveen had left his Kadaluru village in the first week of September 2017 and returned after Gauri was killed.
When his friends asked him about his whereabouts during all those days, he told them, ‘didn’t you see the television, I went to kill Gauri’. He also made calls to his close associates and told them that whoever speaks disrespecting Hindu gods should be killed.
The SIT stated that, a diary was recovered from Sujith alias Praveen, who was arrested in connection in the case of conspiracy to kill Kannada writer K S Bhagwan. In the diary, the police have got vital information about Gauri’s killing.
It contains how Gauri should be killed, who should follow her from office and who should be at home.
It is also mentioned that after the killing which route the killer should take and where he has to change the number plate of the vehicle and other details.