A month after journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh was murdered outside her house in Rajarajeshwari Nagar in Bengaluru, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) is yet to reveal any categorical breakthrough in the case.
However, two days after Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy claimed that they had “definite clues and knew who was behind the murder”, SIT sources continued to only claim a “major breakthrough” but refused to share details.
While these claims have been made, given the lack of any concrete announcement in public domain, there have been serious doubts over whether they can be taken on face value.
“In my experience, if the SIT did not have any clues within 72 hours of the crime, the case is going to be prolonged. Identifying the line of investigation should be clear. The ruling political parties should have patience and let the investigating agency do the job,” said Gopal B. Hosur, retired State Intelligence Bureau chief.
Other former top officers expressed a similar sentiment. “The SIT set up exclusively to probe the murder should expedite the investigation, pool resources and coordinate with other agencies. This is of essence when it comes to investigating such cases. Delay in cracking the case will be a blot on the State police,” said former Director-General of Police Shankar Bidari.
Meanwhile, in the absence of clear revelations of the evidence collected so far or even the suspects, sources only claimed: “Investigations are on the right track and we are closing in on the accused.”
So far, what the police have divulged are only details of the ballistics report that a 7.65 mm country-made pistol, similar to the one used in the murder of three other rationalists, was used to fire all four bullets, and the distance of firing being 2 to 7 ft. However, the police are yet to receive cartridges used in the murders of M.M. Kalburgi, Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare. “Considering the progress of investigation in this case, we do not think it is critical to compare bullets. We have clues independent of this,” said a senior police official in SIT.
The team has sifted through footages from 500 CCTV cameras, and numerous call detail records.
