Bengaluru: A 37-year-old man was arrested on Friday in connection with the murder of Kannada journalist Gauri Lankesh six months ago, police said.

"Naveen Kumar has been arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case and evidence collected so far confirmed he is an accused in the Gauri Lankesh murder," SIT Investigation Officer M.N. Anucheth said.

He is reportedly linked to the Sanatan Sanstha outfit and its affiliate the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti and hails from Birur town in Chikmagalur district.

Kumar was taken into custody by the SIT on March 2 for questioning after he was booked by the Crime Branch on February 19 under the Arms Act for illegal possession of 15 bullets of a revolver.

A city court on Friday extended Kumar's police custody till March 15.

"In the interest of protecting witnesses and further investigation, we cannot reveal his role in the Gauri Lankesh case at this juncture," Anucheth said.

"Based on certain clues provided by him, the SIT took him into custody for further questioning and investigation," Anucheth had said earlier.

 

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Hyderabad (PTI): During the last 11 months, the Congress government in Telangana has reversed an air of gloom and despair under the previous BRS regime and ended the "darkness", Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said on Saturday.

He was responding to a post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that under Congress rule developmental trajectory and fiscal health is turning from bad to worse in Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana.

“I am happy to clarify several misconceptions and factual errors in your statements about my state and our government," Reddy said in his post.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday in a series of posts said the Congress stands "badly exposed" in front of people for promising to them what the party knows it will never be able to deliver.

“Every promise made by us to people is a sacred commitment for us. In the last 11 months, we have reversed an air of gloom & despair under BRS, and ended the darkness. Like a morning sun, Telangana is now Rising,” Reddy said in the post addressed to Modi.

Within two days of taking charge, the Telangana government fulfilled its first and second promise - free bus travel for women across all government buses, and a healthcare and hospitalisation cover of 10 lakhs under Rajiv Aarogyasree, the CM pointed out.

Even before completion of first year of rule, the Congress government has implemented India's largest ever, state-level farmer loan waiver of Rs 18,000 crore covering over 22 lakh farmers, he said responding to PM’s comments that in Telangana, farmers are awaiting the (loan) waiver they were promised.

Women get free electricity, with no domestic power charge for their homes up to 200 units, Reddy noted.

The CM also claimed that his government has held the largest recruitment drive and is regularly holding exams of all levels and provided jobs to over 50,000 eligible youth, a record “unmatched by any BJP state government.”

The CM said the government is rejuvenating River Musi, which was allegedly neglected by the previous government and protecting lakes and other precious water bodies, encroached upon and destroyed wantonly with abandon in the last 10 years.