BENGALURU: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the murder of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh is likely to seek the assistance of central agencies to crack the case.Sources said the probe so far has not yielded enough information to proceed with any particular line of investigation, and the state government may ask for assistance from experts in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or other agencies. “Except the footage from the CCTV at Gauri Lankesh’s residence, there is no other clue available. The team is looking at all angles and possible motives for the killing, but there is hardly any progress,” a police officer said. Gauri Lankesh was shot dead outside her residence in Rajarajeshwari Nagar on September 5.
Sources in the Home department, however, made it clear that the SIT will continue to investigate the murder as the state government had earlier ruled out referring the case to the CBI. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had said that SIT will probe the case and they will refer it to CBI only if Gauri’s family insists on it. Gauri’s mother and activists close to the family had said they had full faith in the state police, and there was no need for a CBI investigation at this stage.
The 61-member SIT team is faced with a daunting task. Details from call records, footage from CCTV cameras at different locations around the house and information gathered from talking to people who regularly interacted with Gauri have not helped the team much, a senior police officer said.
“Since the incident took place at night, the CCTV footage collected are not very clear. So far footage from 42 CCTV cameras were recovered from the locality where the incident took place. Some of the CCTV cameras were not in a working condition,” the officer said. The CCTV footage obtained from Gauri’s house showed the killer but he was wearing a helmet. “He never removed the helmet -- before or after the murder.”
Sources also said based on the investigation conducted so far, some officers were of the opinion that the possibility of involvement of left wing activists can be ruled out. “As of now, the SIT does not rule out or confirm anything. However, going by the modus operandi, it does not seem be left wing,” the officer said.