Gauri Lankesh's sister to oppose CBI probe
Bengaluru, Dec 27 : Slain journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh'ssister Kavitha Lankesh Thursday came out against any move to handover the probe in the case to the CBI, saying the Special Investigation Team of the Karnataka police had made a lot of progress, arresting 16 suspects.
Kavitha said if the state government agreed to the CBI probe, she would seek to implead herself in the matter in the Supreme Court and oppose it.
Her comments come in the backdrop of the apex court recently favouring CBI probe into the murders of Gauri Lankesh, rationalist M M Kalburgi and social activist Govind Pansare if there was a "common thread" in these incidents which occurred over the last five years.
"The SIT led by IG B K Singh and investigation officer M N Anucheth did a brilliant work byarresting the accused in the case. It filed two charge sheetsalso. When there is so much headway, it does not make anysense to hand over the case to CBI," she told PTI here.
However, Kalburgi's son Sreevijaya said he was having faith in judiciary and whatever it did will be in the best interest of his family.
"We will go by whatever judiciary feels good. At the end of the day we want justice in the case," he said.
On December 11, a bench of justices U U Lalit and Navin Sinha of the Supreme Court had asked the CBI, already probing the killing of social activist Narendra Dabholkar, to inform it by January first week whether it would like to investigate the three other cases also.
It observed that one probe agency should investigate all the four cases, if prima facie it appears that there is a "common thread" in the murders.
Earlier, the Karnataka police in its status report told the top court that there appears to be an "intimate connection" between the murders of Kalburgi in 2015 and Gauri Lankesh in 2017.
Gauri Lankesh was shot dead in front of her house here on September 5, 2017 and the SIT has so far arrested 16 people for their alleged involvement in the killing while two others are still at large.
Some of the people arrested in the case are allegedly linked to Sanatan Sanstha and its allied outfit Hindu Janajagruti Samiti.
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Followed poll processes transparently, will review all legitimate concerns: EC to Cong
New Delhi (PTI): The Election Commission on Saturday asserted that all poll procedures it followed in Maharashtra were transparent and assured that it would review all legitimate concerns flagged by the Congress, which alleged serious inconsistencies.
In its interim response to the party, the poll authority invited a Congress delegation on December 3 to discuss concerns expressed by it.
The Congress on Friday raised with the Election Commission "serious and grave inconsistencies" which it said were being revealed in the data relating to the polling and counting processes for the recently-concluded Maharashtra Assembly polls and sought an in-person hearing to present relevant evidence.
In the response, the EC reiterated that the process was transparent with the involvement of candidates or their agents at every stage.
The commission also assured of a review of the Congress' legitimate concerns and a written response after hearing the party's delegation in person.
It asserted that a transparent electoral roll updation process was undertaken with the involvement of all political parties.
Responding to the issue regarding the voter turnout data, the EC asserted that there was no discrepancy in it and the data was available with all candidates polling station-wise and is verifiable.
The gap in the 5 pm polling data and the final voter turnout was due to procedural priorities, as presiding officers perform multiple statutory duties near the close of polling before updating the voter turnout data.
As an additional disclosure measure, an EC press note at around 11:45 pm was introduced during the 2024 Lok Sabha election and followed subsequently during all assembly polls thereafter, the poll body told the Congress.
