The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the murder of editor-activist Gauri Lankesh, on Thursday, took custody of four men who were arrested by the Bengaluru city police for allegedly attempting to kill Mysuru based rationalist thinker K.S. Bhagavan.
The SIT will have custody of the accused for 11 days. The SIT will be questioning them as they are suspected of having a role in the murder of Gauri who was shot dead outside her house last September.
One of the four is Sujith Kumar alias Praveen, 37, who hails from Shikaripura. SIT sources claim that he has emerged as a key link between the Gauri and the Bhagavan plots, and he had recruited Naveen Kumar, now chargesheeted as an accused in the Gauri Lankesh case, in both conspiracies.
The other three men have been identified as Manohar Dundappa Edave alias Manoj, 29, from Vijayapura, Karnataka; Amol Kale alias Bhai Saab, 37, from Pune; and Amit Degwekar, 38, from Sindhudurg in Maharashtra.
All four had been arrested by the Upparpet police in the third week of May for allegedly plotting to kill Prof. Bhagavan months after Gauri Lankesh was shot dead. The SIT took custody of the men from the Upparpet police on Thursday.
Presenting their arguments in court, the SIT claimed that it had incriminating evidence indicating their involvement in the Gauri Lankesh case.
However, SIT chief B.K. Singh said that they have been taken into custody for interrogation, and are not shown as accused and arrested in the Gauri case.
‘Evidence recovered’
The Bengaluru police recovered crucial material evidence from the four men which, sources say, revealed their role in the murder of journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh.
This prompted the SIT probing the case to take them into their custody on Thursday.
According to police sources, one of the key pieces of evidence was a diary recovered from Amol Kale alias Bhai Saab, 37. The diary has a hit-list of eight people from Karnataka, including Gauri Lankesh, the sources claimed. They refused to disclose the names on the list.
“These are among the 28 persons who were provided security by the State government following the murder of Gauri Lankesh. The department has again reviewed their security after we came upon this list,” a senior officer said.
The police also recovered diaries from Sujith Kumar alias Praveen, 37 and Manohar Dundappa Edave, 29, who is from Vijayapura.
Praveen is said to be the key link between the Gauri Lankesh case and the attempt to murder Professor Bhagavan, a Mysuru-based rationalist.
These diaries, apart from having a list of telephone numbers, which is proving to be a goldmine of leads for the police, also have sketches of what seems like the house of Gauri Lankesh, sources said. The police have also recovered a map of Bengaluru along with a booklet of BMTC bus routes from Praveen, they told the court.
“The evidence will be subjected to forensic examination to prove it is their hand-writing, but even without that, they are accountable for what was seized from their possession,” said a senior officer.
The SIT, seeking custody of the four on Thursday, told the court that the accused were in possession of several SIM cards and mobile phones. One of them had 22 mobile phones and many more SIM cards.
According to a senior officer, each SIM card was used in multiple mobile phone sets (IMEI numbers). Police will be examining the mobile numbers found in the seized diaries along with Call Detail Records (CDR). A senior officer said the analysis of this voluminous CDR data would take time and hopes it would yield a breakthrough to crack the larger conspiracy behind these plots.
