Bengaluru, Aug 23: The recent arrests made by the Maharashtra Anti Terror Squad (ATS) and the CBI have yielded an important breakthrough in the Gauri Lankesh murder case as one of the accused has confessed that he had links with those who involved in eliminating Karnataka’s leading journalist-cum-activist last year.
Ten days after journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh was shot dead on September 5, 2017, Sudhanva Gondhalekar (39) had allegedly travelled to Bengaluru and collected the murder weapon — a country-made pistol of 7.65 mm calibre — from H L Suresh, one of the accused who allegedly harboured the hitmen at a rented house in Seegehalli.
Gondhalekar was one of the people arrested last week by the Maharashtra ATS and the CBI, who were acting on intelligence provided by the Karnataka Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Gauri case. “The investigation has now established that Gondhalekar collected the murder weapon from Suresh. It was left in his care by the team that carried out the hit on the day of the murder,” said a senior official.
According to the SIT, one of the key suspects, Amol Kale — who was in Suresh’s house on September 5 — wrapped up the weapon and put it in a suitcase, which was in turn placed in a metal trunk. The trunk was kept in a shop that Suresh had rented near his house in Seegehalli.
The SIT seized these items and recovered a strand of hair, which has matched the DNA profile of Kale. Following his arrest, Suresh allegedly told interrogators that an associate of Kale had collected the weapon from him. “That man has been identified as Sudhanva Gondhalekar, which makes him a key suspect in the case,” the official said.
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