Gauri Lankesh's murder was planned a year before: Exclusive details

The idea of creating a 'Hindu Rashtra' led to four activists being murdered by one nameless underground organisation. The organisation has members from Sanathan Sanstha, Hindu Janjagruthi Samithi and many other right wing organisations, according to the Special Investigation Team (SIT).

The mastermind of Gauri Lankesh's assassination Amol Kale was a former Hindu Janajagruti Samiti convener and another accused Amit Degwekar was a sadhak in the Sanathan Sanstha.

The nameless underground organisation had a hit list with 26 names across the country and it consisted of 60 people who were planning to execute the assassinations. The SIT shared as many as 14 names on the hit list with Maharashtra Police and Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).

The recent arrests of many right-wing members in Mumbai, Maharashtra were based on the information provided by Karnataka SIT. According to the information the detonators and weapons were in possession of members of many right-wing organisations.

UNEARTHING GAURI LANKESH'S MURDER PLOT

The SIT has found that the plan to kill Gauri Lankesh started almost a year before the actual murder took place on September 5, 2017. Amol Kale hired the alleged killer Parashuram Waghmare - a member of Sri Ram Sene.

Waghmare was told to kill Lankesh for the sake of saving Hindu dharam. Kale then took Waghmare to an isolated three-acre land in Khanapur, Belgaum to practice shooting using an air pistol.

Waghmare first came to Bengaluru in July 2017 and did a recce of Gauri's house.

DAY OF THE MURDER

According to the police, Waghmare didn't know any of his associates by name. He only knew them through their aliases. Waghmare was told that someone will pick him up on a bike and he has to pull the trigger of the 7.65 mm country-made pistol.

On September 5 at 8.09 pm, Waghmare arrived on a black motorcycle outside Lankesh's house and assassinated her.

He was accompanied by another man Ganesh Miskin. Ganesh was also carrying a gun, if in case Waghmare failed to hit the target.

Once Gauri Lankesh was shot, Ganesh Miskin and Waghmare rushed towards Mysore Road and met another accused Amit Baddi, who was waiting in a Maruti Omni van. Waghmare and Ganesh Miskin, upon reaching the spot at Mysore Road, handed over the gun, bike, clothes, helmet, and shoes to Amit Baddi.

Both the shooters then headed towards Nelanmangala, which is on the outskirts of Bengaluru, to meet another associate Bharat Kurne.

Kurne helped them to board a bus to North Karnataka.

Meanwhile, Amit Baddi took the gun, clothes and the bike to a safe house in Kumbalgodu. The belongings along with the murder weapon were removed from the safe house by Sudhanva Gondhalekar 10 days later. Gondhalekar was recently arrested in Maharashtra.

ROLE OF EACH ACCUSED

Investigating officers



feel that the murder was meticulously planned and micro-managed by mastermind Amol Kale. The SIT has arrested 12 people till now in Gauri Lankesh's murder case.

1. KT Naveen Kumar - Abettor of the conspiracy; was involved in procuring arms for next assassination

2. Sujith Kumar - Recruiter of the murderer (Parashuram Waghmare)

3. Amol Kale - Mastermind of the assassination

4. Amit Degwekar - Deputy head of the group

5. Manohar Edave - Involved in conspiring the murder

6. Parashuram Waghmare - The alleged shooter

7. Rajesh Bangera - Arms trainer

8. Ganesh Maskin - Bike rider

9. Amit Baddi - Collected weapon and took it to safe place

10. Suresh - House owner where weapon was hidden

11. Bharat Kurne - Owner of land where Waghmare practised shooting in 2017

12. Mohan Naik - Rented a house for weapon to be kept after the murder

FOUR MURDERS ONE DIARY

When Amol Kale was arrested a few months ago, the SIT found a diary in his possesson which had some codes. They cracked the codes and managed to get names and numbers of the other accused in the murder.

When the investigators dug deep into the information in the diary, they realised Amol Kale was also involved in murders of Govind Pansare, Narendra Dabholkar and MM Kalburgi.

Till Kalburgi's murder, Dr Virendra Tawde was heading the nameless organisation, but after his arrest, Amol Kale took over as the head of the group. The information in the diary was shared by the SIT with their counterparts in Maharashtra and many right-wing members were put under surveillance, which resulted in the recent arrests.

WEAPON USED FOR MURDER

Sources in SIT said that the weapon used for Gauri Lankesh's murder and other murders was procured and manufactured by Sharad Kalaskar, who was also arrested by the ATS.

SIT believes that the two guns were used for all four murders.

On the day of the murder, the gang carried two guns. In Pansare's killing both guns were used. In Gauri, Kalburgi, Dhabolkar killing, one gun was used, but the second gun was present at the crime scene.          - Said a source from SIT

According to SIT, the weapons seized by ATS in Mumbai consist of these two guns. SIT will now seek the custody of the weapon and send it to forensic laboratory for tests.

HABITUAL OFFENDERS

Amol Kale and gang allegedly threw petrol bombs at a theater in Belgaum during the screening of controversial movie Padmaavat. The SIT also unearthed another plot where the same gang had gone to a western music concert in Pune on 2017's New Year's Eve.

The mission was aborted as the gang found CCTV cameras and became alert, and the plan was shelved.