Gauri Lankesh murder case: Sanatan Sanstha activist with alleged role in Goa blast could be second suspect, says report

A week after investigators arrested KT Naveen Kumar and named him as the first accused in the Gauri Lankesh murder case, a report has said that a second suspect identified could be a person from Maharashtra against whom Interpol issued a red-corner notice for links to a bomb blast in Goa nine years ago.

Representational image. PTI

A report in The Indian Express said that official sources told the newspaper that the suspect, identified as 34-year-old Praveen Limkar from Kolhapur and an activist of Sanatan Sanstha, was accused by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) of playing a major role in a blast in Madgaon on 19 October, 2009.

The police are currently seeking permission to conduct a lie detector test on Kumar. He was taken into custody on 3 March for illegal possession of bullets and is reportedly connected to radical Hindutva outfit called the Hindu Yuva Sena.

"KT Naveen Kumar was taken into custody by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Karnataka Police for questioning," SIT Investigating Officer MN Anucheth had told IANS in Bengaluru. Kumar hails from Birur town in Chikkamagaluru district, about 250 km west from Bengaluru, Anucheth had said.

He has also been linked to members of the Sanatan Sanstha and its affiliate Hindu Janajagruti Samiti. He was found in possession of more than 15 rounds of the cartridges of the .32 calibre, which are the same as the 7.65 mm cartridges.

Lankesh, 55, the editor of Lankesh Patrike, was shot dead outside her residence in the city's southwestern suburb by unidentified assailants on 5 September last year.

The state government had set up the SIT to probe the journalist-activist's killing.

With inputs from IANS