Gauri murder accused wanted to kill Bhagwan before poll

Bengaluru, Jun 14: The accused in the Gauri Lankesh murder case planned to assassinate Kannada writer K S Bhagwan three months after her slaying or before the Assembly polls, it has emerged.

The team, however, shelved the idea after accused K T Naveen Kumar’s arrest.

SIT sources said all the accused in the Gauri Lankesh case conspired to kill Bhagwan and had started a recce at his house. Naveen bought an air gun and gave it to his associate Anil Kumar for shooting practice.

Since Naveen is from Maddur, which was their rendezvous point, Praveen asked him to collect the route map and CCTV camera information.

Sources also pointed out that Naveen spoke to Praveen and others from coin booths and exchanged the date and time of their meeting. Details were discussed during face-to-face meetings.

SIT officials nabbed the accused by getting hold of Naveen’s call data records from the coin-booths he used. Naveen received calls from Vijaypura, Belagavi and districts bordering Maharashtra.

Despite knowing Naveen’s role in Gauri’s murder, SIT officials did not show him as an arrested in the case. Instead, said a senior official, they grabbed him in an illegal firearms case to get the leads on the other accused.

CCTV footage of the recce by the accused before murdering Gauri provided the major clue in the case. In all, the SIT nabbed six people — Parashuram Waghmore from Sindhagi in Vijayapura; K T Naveen Kumar from Maddur; Amol Kale alias Bhaisab from Maharashtra; Manohar Edave from Vijayapura; Sujeet Kumar alias Praveen from Shikaripura; and Amit Degwekar alias Pradeep from Goa.