BENGALURU: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Saturday released three sketches of two suspects who had allegedly gunned down journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh outside her home in Rajarajeshwari Nagar area in Bengaluru on September 5.
The sketches were compiled after speaking to eyewitnesses and perusing CCTV records.
Head of SIT team, B K Singh said that the suspects were aged between 25-30 years and were suspected to have stayed in the city for a minimum of seven days and possibly up to a month's time.
"We are not linking them to any organisation at present. We are looking at all angles and the only thing we are ruling out is a professional rivalry. We are now focusing on tracking these two people," Singh said.
He also said it had taken an average of two days to finalise each sketch and they had sought the help of an expert to draw these sketches.
"In one sketch, you will find that there is kumkum on the suspect's forehead. That does not mean that he can be linked to any organisations. It is possible that eyewitnesses could have added that bit of information," he added.
The team also identified the make and model of the bike used by the suspects through CCTV footage and refused to reveal more details about it.
So far, according to the SIT, more than 250 people have been questioned in the case.
Interestingly, the police also seem to have found some eyewitnesses after a Rs 10 lakh award was announced and some of their help has also been enlisted in framing the sketches.
Singh said that they had found footage, where the suspect had raised the visor of the helmet, thereby giving a glimpse of the face. So far, the probe team has looked at a 75 terrabytes of CCTV footage.
Singh confirmed that the weapon used for the killing was a 7.65 mm country-made pistol, but refused to say whether ballistics had given a match with the weapon used in M M Kalaburgi and Narendra Dabholkar killings.