Benglauru, Mar 2: Hindu Yuva Sena leader Naveen Kumar T alias Hotte Manja, who was arrested last month by the Special Investigation Team probing the murder of journactivist Gauri Lankesh, is suspected to have played a key role in the case.

The 38-year-old gunrunner from Maddur in Mandya district was picked up from the KSRTC bus stand in Majestic area in Bengaluru with a .32-calibre gun and 15 live bullets. He was trying to sell the gun when he was arrested.
Though he has not confessed to the crime so far, the SIT team has reportedly gathered evidence for his involvement in the transportation of the assailants who gunned down Gauri Lankesh in front of her house in Bengaluru on September 5. The investigating officers are now awaiting forensic confirmation before proceeding against him.
Highly placed sources said SIT has found out that Hotte Manja was part of a four-member team from a rightwing organisation based outside Karnataka. Sources also said that the CCTV footage collected from the surroundings of Gauri’s house pointed to Hotte Manja’s role.
“We have video footage of a man riding the bike near Gauri's place for observation on September 3 and 5. The rider is wearing a full-face helmet but his nose is almost visible. We recreated the scene with Hotte Manja on a similar bike. Everything - from his posture on the bike to the way he rides to the nose - perfectly matches with CCTV footage. We're waiting for forensic confirmation of our recreated images before proceeding against him. The bike, another crucial link, is eluding us," a news channel quoted an SIT source as saying.
Hotte Manja, however, admitted to harbouring four individuals from a rightwing organization. “We have drawn their sketches based on his description. We are sure one of them, a man with receding hairline killed Gauri," an SIT official reportedly told a news channel.


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