Brother of slain senior journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh today expressed confidence that the culprits will be traced soon with the help of concrete evidence from the CCTV footage and the journalist's mobile phone.
Lankesh was the editor of the weekly Gauri 'Lankesh Patrike'.
Brother of slain senior journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh today expressed confidence that the culprits will be traced soon with the help of concrete evidence from the CCTV footage and the journalist's mobile phone.
"The CCTV camera (in the premises) has captured the whole incident.. I am very confident that the culprits will be caught soon," Indrajit Lankesh, Gauri's brother and a filmmaker told reporters here.
"In fact her mobile phone also contains a lot of evidence and clues.. Investigation is underway.. I will provide details later in the day.," he said.
Senior journalist Gauri Lankesh was shot dead at her residence in Bengaluru, on Tuesday evening.
Unidentified men shot at her seven times from close range and that three bullets hit her on the neck and chest, following which she collapsed at the entrance of her house at close to 8 p.m. this evening.
"There has been a shootout at Gauri Lankesh's house this evening; she is no more. Her body was found in her veranda," said M.N. Anucheth, DCP, West Bengaluru.
"We found Gauri Lankesh lying in a pool of blood; found four empty cartridges from the scene of offence," said Bangalore commissioner of police. He said that the post-mortem would reveal how many bullets entered her body and that the number of assailants was not clear yet. The commissioner Suneel Kumar further said that people in front of her house heard gunshots, saw her collapsing in the verandah before entering her house.
"She didn't complain of anything. If she anywhere expressed about threats, it will be thoroughly investigated," he added.
"There are two CCTV cameras; three teams are working on this," Karnataka Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy eariler said.
Karnataka Law Minister TB Jayachandra said it can't be ruled out that Gauri's murder had similarities with the murder of Kannada writer MM Kalburgi, reports the NDTV.
Karnataka police chief R.K. Dutta had earlier said Lankesh was shot dead by unidentified assailants at the entrance of her residence in Raj Rajeshwari Nagar.
Lankesh, in her 50s, edited a Kannada tabloid 'Gauri Lankesh Patrike' besides owning some other publications.
Dutta said Lankesh had not voiced apprehension about any threat to her life during a couple of meetings he had with her.
Asked about who could be the possible suspects in the killing, the officer refused to hazard any guess, saying "let the investigation proceed first."
Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah has reacted to the incident, saying:"I have no words to condemn this heinous crime".
Lankesh, as the editor of the weekly 'Gauri Lankesh Patrike' and had been under attack for her views on communalism. She had been convicted in two defamation cases for articles critical of the Bharatiya Janata Party written in January 2008. She had been out on bail in the case. Her article had alleged that BJP MP Prahalad Joshi from Dharwad was directly involved in corruption.
In an interview to Newslaundry, in November last year, she had said that "Modi Bhakts" celebrate the deaths of rationalists and that they would rather have her in jail. Lankesh was speaking about the killings of rationalists like Pansare, Dabholkar and M.M. Kalburgi.
Kalburgi was shot-dead by unidentified assailants on a motorcycle at his home in Dharwad on the morning of August 30, 2015.
With Agency Inputs