#GauriLankesh: Karnataka forms SIT, CM Siddaramiah not averse to CBI probe
Her murder has galvanised the media over the right to freedom of speech and expression, and dissent.
Speaking to the media after meeting senior police officers, the Karnataka CM said he was open to handing over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation too. He also directed the police department to provide protection to progressive thinkers and prominent social activists across Karnataka.
“I have told the DGP to take as many officers as possible and exclusively probe Gauri’s murder, which appears to be an organised crime,” he was quoted as saying by the Times of India. Referring to the teams investigating Lankesh’s murder, Siddaramaiah added that the formation of three investigative teams would make sure culprits are booked at the earliest. He added that the SIT will be constituted under an IGP-level officer.
At around 3pm, Lankesh’s body was taken to the Lingayat Rudrabhumi – a burial ground in Chamrajpete near Bengaluru’s TR Mills in an ambulance. Her family joined her in the ambulance.
Lankesh’s brother Indrajeet said, “There won’t be any customs and rituals done, as Gauri did not believe in those things.”
Other prominent people who reached the burial ground were Prakash Raj, Home Minister Ramlinga Reddy, Uma Bharati, Congressman KR Ramesh and Jai Mrutunjay Swami.
At around 4.45pm, the Karnataka police offered state honors to Lakesh’s last mortal remain with a 21-gun salute. The preparations at the cemetery were made under the presence of DCP South, Sharanappa.
The crowd gathered to pay their respects chanted “Gauri Lankesh Amar rahe” and Gauri Lankesh Zindabad slogans as her body was carried from the casket to the pit. At around 5pm, Laskesh’s body was lowered in the pit and was laid to rest. Family members, friends, colleagues and political leaders took part in the final funeral rites.
Of the four CCTVs at her residence, one caught a helmet-wearing assailant shooting at her, Siddaramiah said.
Journalist Gauri Lankesh was shot dead outside her Bengaluru home in Rajarajeshwari Nagar. She ran the Gauri Lankesh Patrike, a tabloid critical of the right wing.
Lankesh was returning home after work and was walking into her house when she was shot. Police said two men who had been following her car and another man, who was already standing outside her house, shot seven bullets at her with three finding the mark. Lankesh stayed alone in her house. She has a brother Indrajeet and sister Kavita.
Twitter and other social media were full of shocked protests with journalists, politicians and activists expressing outrage at the murder. Right wing trolls didn’t spare Lankesh even in her death and made offensive remarks against her, further ratcheting up the temperature in social media. Some of the trolls are those who take pride in the fact that they are followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Twitter handle.
In November last year, Lankesh was convicted in two criminal defamation cases for a story that was published in 2008 against three BJP leaders. Soon after her arrest, she was out on bail and appealed against the order of the lower court in the Karnataka High Court.
A colleague of Lankesh, Bhagyashree told 101Reporters that one of their mutual friends had told her that Gauri had informed her about death threats she was receiving.
Another friend and a long-standing advisor of Lankesh, senior political correspondent Ravindra Reshme said some Naxal group or those who were against her views of the right wing could be behind the murder.
With inputs from 101Reporters.