Gauri Lankesh murder: Accused KT Naveen confesses to crime, says SIT
Bengaluru: The main accused in the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh, KT Naveen Kumar, has confessed to the killing, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) has reportedly claimed.
The police memo accessed by News18 states that Kumar recorded his statement, owning up to the murder. According to the confession statement, Kumar and his accomplice Praveen planned the murder outside Adi Chanchanagiri complex at Vijayanagara in the western part of Bengaluru.
Kumar took the police to both the crime spot and the place where he allegedly plotted her murder, the report added.
Police claim that Kumar has agreed to a lie detector test and he took them to crime spot using the same route he allegedly took on the night of murder, News18 added.
An officer of the SIT had earlier said that narcoanalysis test would be conducted on Kumar. "Though the court allowed us to conduct the narco test, or a lie-detector test, on KT Naveen Kumar on 12 March, the date and place for the same have not been fixed yet," SIT Investigation Officer MN Anucheth had told IANS.
Kumar was taken into custody on 3 March by the Karnataka SIT for questioning. He hails from Birur town in Chikkamagaluru district, about 250 kilometres west of Bengaluru, SIT Investigating Officer MN Anucheth said.
Lankesh, 55, the editor of Lankesh Patrike, was shot dead outside her residence in the city's southwestern suburb by unidentified assailants on 5 September last year.
The state government had set up the SIT to probe the journalist-activist's killing.
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India, US trade team to start three-day talks from Dec 10: Sources
New Delhi (PTI): India and the United States will commence three-day talks on the first phase of their proposed bilateral trade agreement here from December 10, sources said.
The visit is crucial as India and the US are working to finalise the first tranche of the pact.
"The three-day talks will start on December 10. It will conclude on December 12, and it is not a formal round of talks," said one of the sources.
The US team will be led by Deputy United States Trade Representative (USTR) Rick Switzer.
This visit of the US officials marks their second trip since the imposition of a 25 per cent tariff and an additional 25 per cent penalty on Indian goods entering the American market due to the purchase of Russian crude oil.
On September 16, the US officials last visited India.
On September 22, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal also led an official delegation to the US for trade talks. Goyal had also visited Washington in May.
While the USA's chief negotiator for the pact is Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch, the Indian side is led by Joint Secretary in the Department of Commerce Darpan Jain.
The talks are also important as Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal has recently stated that India is hopeful of reaching a framework trade deal with the US this year itself, which should address the tariff issue to the benefit of Indian exporters.
While noting that the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) will take time, Agrawal has added that India is engaged in protracted negotiations with the US on a framework trade deal that will address the reciprocal tariff challenge faced by Indian exporters.
India and the US are having two parallel negotiations -- one on a framework trade deal to address tariffs and another on a comprehensive trade deal.
In February, leaders of the two countries directed officials to negotiate an agreement.
It was planned to conclude the first tranche of the pact by the fall of 2025. So far, six rounds of negotiations have been held. The agreement aims to more than double bilateral trade to USD 500 billion by 2030, from the current USD 191 billion.
The US remained India's largest trading partner for the fourth consecutive year in 2024-25, with bilateral trade valued at USD 131.84 billion (USD 86.5 billion exports).
The US accounts for about 18 per cent of India's total goods exports, 6.22 per cent of its imports, and 10.73 per cent of its total merchandise trade.
According to exporters, the agreement is important as India's merchandise exports to the US declined for the second consecutive month in October, falling by 8.58 per cent to USD 6.3 billion due to the hefty tariffs imposed by Washington.
