BENGALURU: Putting an end to speculations about the contents of the additional chargesheet filed by a special investigation team probing the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh, IGP Bijay Kumar Singh, who is heading the team, detailed how the investigation, with more than 200 officers, was carried out.
A statement released by him on Saturday said, “Artificial Intelligence systems were used to extract images of suspected persons and vehicles and to compare with the footages obtained from 200 terabytes of video data from the CCTV cameras installed at major roads and junctions by the Bengaluru police.”
More than 2,500 persons were interviewed and examined. Based on the clues given by them, nearly 10,000 suspected two-wheelers from all over the state were examined and owners quizzed.
The first breakthrough was achieved when the forensic ballistic analysis established that the pistol used to murder Gauri was the “same pistol” used to murder Prof MM Kalburgi in Dharwad and Govind Pansare in Kolhapur, Maharashtra. Based on the clues, mastermind Amol Kale, Ashok Wagmore and 14 others were arrested while two others - Vikas Patil and Rushikesh Deodikar are absconding.
The investigation so far has revealed that all the 18 accused are active members of an organised crime syndicate. This syndicate was formed in 2010-11 under the leadership of Dr Virendra Tawade. One former editor of Sanatan Prabhat provided financial support to this syndicate. The members of this organisation targeted persons who they identified to be inimical to their belief and ideology. The members strictly followed the guidelines and principles mentioned in “Kshatra Dharma Sadhana”, a book published by Sanatan Sanstha.
The members of the organized crime syndicate met, conspired and trained at various places in Karnataka and Maharashtra. In August 2016, the main members of the syndicate identified Gauri as a “Durjan” as told in the Kshatra Dharma Sadhana based on her speeches and writings. They jointly hatched a conspiracy to murder her in furtherance of the achievement of their goal, the statement said.
Post operation hideout
The duo - Parashuram Waghmare and Ganesh Miskin- who ‘killed’ Gauri Lankesh escaped on a bike to the place where Amit Baddi was waiting and handed over their pistols, rounds (ammunition), clothes, helmets etc and went to the Kumbalgodu house. Bharat Kurne was waiting for them and dropped them off near Nelamangala toll gate and they escaped individually. Meanwhile, Amit Baddi took the articles in the Maruti Omni van and kept inside the home of H L Suresh at Seegehalli and escaped.
