Bengaluru: Almost nine months after the murder of journalist and social activist Gauri Lankesh, the first accused arrested in the case – K T Naveen Kumar has confessed to killing Lankesh. Kumar also informed the police that he supplied bullets to a rightwing activist who told him they were for “Gauri Lankesh as she was anti-Hindu,” according to a report.
Earlier, Kumar and another accused Praveen, had confessed to issuing life threat letter to Mysuru-based rationalist writer Prof K S Bhagwan on September 9, 2015.
Kumar’s 12-page confession statement is part of the first chargesheet that was filed by the Special Investigation Team in May 2018. The chargesheet running into 650 pages was filed before a session court and includes 131 statements.
The confession statement also includes a detailed route map leading to Gauri Lankesh’s house. Prepared by the killers, the map mentions different angles of the house that were taken into account before carrying out the attack.
However, Naveen Kumar alias Hotte Manja has denied killing Lankesh. His family, too, has maintained throughout that he is innocent.
According to the police, Naveen Kumar is a member of a pro-Hindu outfit and founded the Hindu Yuva Sene in 2014. A student of commerce, he dropped out of college in Mysore reportedly after being influenced by right-wing ideology. He is also an alleged illegal arms dealer, reported media.
In the confession statement submitted by the SIT, Naveen Kumar mentions that Praveen had told him he needed bullets. However, Praveen tested the bullets and found them “useless”. He then reached out to Kumar and said that he needed to buy good bullets.
He also told Kumar that these bullets were meant to kill Gauri Lankesh as she was “anti-Hindu”, according to the confession statement.
As per Kumar’s statement to the police, he claims that he tried to buy new bullets but couldn’t get his hands on them and couldn’t communicate with Praveen as he wasn’t using a mobile phone.
It was only on September 5, the day Gauri Lankesh was murdered, Naveen Kumar claims he went to Mangalore and learnt from the newspapers that the journalist was killed.
The charge sheet reportedly includes phone call records of Kumar discussing the professor’s murder.
Gauri Lankesh, 55, was shot down with a 7.65 mm country made pistol in the driveway of her home in west Bengaluru on the evening of September 5, 2017.
Prasanta Patnaik