Gauri Lankesh murder: Karnataka Police yet to establish role of Sanatan Sanstha, says state deputy chief minister

Bengaluru: Karnataka police were yet to establish the role of Maharashtra-based right-wing outfit Sanatan Sanstha’s activists in the journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh Gauri Lankesh murder, state deputy chief minister G Parameshwara said Tuesday. “Investigation was still on to find out whether the right-wing outfit’s activists were involved in the Lankesh murder case,” he told reporters in Karnataka. [caption id=“attachment_2504916” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] “The investigation is still on…. Nobody has said with absolute clarity and proof that Sanatan Sanstha activists were involved in the murder. The investigation has to be completed first. Then only we will get all the information,” he said. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Lankesh murder case has so far arrested 12 people and some of them were allegedly linked to Sanatan Sanstha and its allied organisation Hindu Janajagruti Samiti. Several activists allegedly linked to Sanatan Sanstha have been arrested in connection with the killings of rationalists, including Narendra Dabholkar, recently. However, the outfit has claimed that those arrested were not its members. Its spokesperson Chetan Rajhans has said that a few people with “progressive mindset”, along with political parties such as the Congress and the Left block, were putting the Sanstha in the dock without providing any evidence of wrongdoing. Replying to a question, Parameswara said, “Any organisation posing threat to the internal security of the nation was monitored by the Central government and the state government. Accordingly, action was taken against them.” Lankesh, known for her stronganti-Hindutva ideology, was shot dead on 5 September, 2017 outside her Karnataka residence. Based on the tip off given by the SIT, the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) too got leads in the killing of MM Kalburgi, a rationalist who was shot dead on 30 August, 2015 at Dharwad. Sources in SIT said they had tipped off the CBI also, which is probing the killing of Dabholkar in Pune on 20 August, 2013 in Pune. The CBI has arrested a few people in connection with the case.