Kalburgi probe: CID gets nod to question Gauri Lankesh murder suspects

Gauri Lankesh

To facilitate a probe into the unsolved August 30, 2015 murder of Kannada scholar M M Kalburgi at Dharwad in Karnataka, the Criminal Investigation Department of Karnataka police has been granted permission to question in prison several persons linked to Hindutva groups arrested for the September 5, 2017 murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh.

The court of principal civil and sessions judge in Bengaluru granted permission to the CID to conduct inquiries with key accused in the Lankesh case like former activists of Hindu Janajagruti Samiti — Sujeet Kumar, Amol Kale; Sanatan Sanstha’s Amit Degwekar and fringe Hindutva group members Manohar Edave, Ganesh Miskin and Amit Baddi in prison.

The CID was granted permission to conduct inquiries in Bengaluru central prison for three days from August 27. The CID moved the court for permission to conduct inquiries with suspects arrested in the Lankesh case by a Special Investigation Team of the Karnataka police after the SIT submitted a report to the CID recently indicating the involvement of three persons from the Lankesh murder in the murder of Kalburgi.

The SIT report has cleared the way for CID to reopen investigations in the Kalburgi case.