Four Held For Conspiring to Kill Mysore Prof May be Linked to Gauri Lankesh Murder Too

Bengaluru: The team probing the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh has received a shot in the arm with the arrest of four persons, who have been accused of hatching a conspiracy to kill another intellectual.

The SIT formed to nab Lankesh’s killers is likely to seek the custody of the four - Sujith Kumar, Manohar Edave, Amol Kale and Amit Egvekar - who were picked by Bengaluru police on May 21 for illegal possession of arms. They are all in the 35- 40 year age-group.

According to police, they were arrested Upparpet area of Bengaluru based on the leads given by KT Naveen Kumar, the Hindu Yuva Sena member and local gun runner, who is the sole accused in the Gauri Lankesh murder case so far.

Naveen was picked up by the police for illegal possession of bullets in February this year and was later charged with plotting to kill Professor Bhagwan, an academic based in Mysore, who has faced threats repeatedly over the last two years from right-wing groups for his views.

He was later accused of the Gauri Lankesh murder too, as he was said to have been in the vicinity of her home until two days before she was killed brutally by sharp-shooters outside her home just as she returned from work.

Lankesh, the journalist-activist who has spoken out on a range of issues and had been under threat, was killed by two men who came on a bike and accosted her outside her home on September 5 last year.

An SIT was formed to crack this case, which later took the custody of Naveen Kumar for questioning and then arrested him too.

Similarly, the SIT is likely to seek custody of the four persons arrested by the Bengaluru police for questioning: They were produced before a magistrate on May 21 and are currently in custody till May 31.

“They are caught under the Arms Act, but other offences such as conspiracy to kill and attempt to murder have already been filed against them by the local police, in relation to Prof Bhagwan. Since there is a pattern, we may seek their custody if we can get some link to the Lankesh case from them,” said a police source.