Finally, the progress on Gauri Lankesh murder investigation has reached a stage of filing the chargesheet. The police have submitted a chargesheet on two young men with Sangh Parivar background. The anxiety of Gauri Lankesh murder being hushed up as Prof Kalburgi murder has been put to rest, at least tentatively. The murder happened when former CM Siddaramaiah government was in the office, and the crime took place almost late evening. People had expected the arrest of culprits much faster than this, but then again, the agencies took a disappointingly longer time.

There are allegations that Gauri Lankesh’s family didn’t cooperate with the investigating agencies. The inconsistency of statements of Indrajit Lankesh, Gauri’s brother, have often contributed to the delay in derailing the investigation. Media has also contributed much in this regard. Yet, this has been a big achievement on part of the police to have made a headway into this progress. However, the chargesheet says the ones arrested are not those who planned the murder, but only those who executed it. This is disappointing since a delayed investigation and submission of witness and circumstantial evidence would mean the culprits will come out free within no time. So, the arrest of Naveen and Praveen are not the final sigh of relief for friends and family of Gauri. The supari killers may have been paid by certain elements in the society and their role has to be probed to get to the root of this bigger issue of hating dissidence. The ones who killed Gauri may not even have known why they were asked to kill her. Money may be their only link to this crime.

Such Supari killers are not hate mongers. They are just the tools at the hands of hate mongers who want every dissident voice wiped off from the face of earth. Had the Kalburgi killers been nabbed, there were chances of Gauri being alive today. If the killers of Gauri aren’t nabbed with their network, it may lead to another such incident and loss of a significant life. There are already plans of writer Bhagwan being targeted. The culprits often hide themselves amidst the general public. And they are also confident that they’d be let off for want of evidence. Hence even the hands of legal system is bloodied with Gauri’s murder.

One young fellow had celebrated Kalaburgi’s murder in Dakshina Kannada. He was arrested and let off on bail. The same fellow used the loopholes in legal frame work and gathered courage to kill another youngster Harish Pujari In Bantwal. His agenda was to create unrest among Hindu and Muslims. Had he been punished for his behavior earlier during Kalburgi’s incident, a life would have been saved and Bantwal wouldn’t have witnessed communal tensions.

Just the way as Sangh Parivar’s ideology is responsible for the threatening situation and murder of intellectuals, loopholes in legal frame work has also greatly contributed to the emboldening of criminals. Communal tensions are being dealt with some sort of soft handed approach and this has led to communal mindset even among law implementing agencies. Political pressure could also be another reason.

Many assume delivering hate-speeches can make them leaders. If cases are lodged against them, they wouldn’t even dare repeat their crime. Former MLA Ramanath Rai couldn’t arrest Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat despite having declared that he’d do that. Had he done that, the state would have been far safer today and many people would have been alive amidst us.  

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Budapest/Washington: US Vice President J D Vance has said that Lebanon was never included in the ceasefire understanding with Iran, describing the confusion as a “legitimate misunderstanding”.

Speaking to reporters before departing from Hungary, Vance said, “I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon and it just didn’t. We never made that promise.”

He stressed that the United States had not included Lebanon in the scope of the ceasefire at any stage.

His remarks come amid continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon, where more than 200 people were reported killed, even as ceasefire talks between Iran and the US move forward.

Vance said Israel had “offered … to check themselves a little bit in Lebanon because they want to make sure that our negotiation is successful”.

He warned that if Iran allows the situation in Lebanon to affect the negotiations, it could derail the talks.

“If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart in a conflict where they were getting hammered over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them and which the United States never once said was part of the ceasefire, that’s ultimately their choice,” he said.