SIT probing Gauri Lankesh murder arrests another suspect

The Special Investigation Team probing Gauri Lankesh murder case on Tuesday arrested one Parshuram Wagmare from Sindagi in Karnataka in connection with the case. The accused was produced before a local court, which sent him to 14-day police custody for interrogation.

This comes almost a fortnight after the SIT submitted a 650-page chargesheet wherein 131 statements, including those of Forensic Science Laboratory officers and accused KT Naveen and Praveen, were mentioned.

The preliminary findings of the Forensic Sciences Laboratory had suggested that Lankesh and noted Kannada scholar MM Kalburgi were possibly killed with the same weapon, a 7.65 mm country-made pistol. Kalburgi was gunned down by unknown assailants in August 2015 at his Dharwad residence. 

Lankesh was shot dead by unknown by assailants outside her residence in Bengaluru on September 5 last year. She was the editor of the Gauri Lankesh Patrike, a tabloid known for "anti-establishment" views.

The suspect wearing a black helmet, was captured by the two CCTV cameras facing the road - Gauri's house has two other cameras - first at 3.27 pm. He was seen wearing a white formal shirt with long sleeves and riding a motorcycle, in the footage. 

The footage showed the man arriving from the right side of the road, and making a U-turn about 10 feet from the gate. On his third visit, the suspect had a black sling bag in which he possibly carried the murder weapon, according to the investigators.