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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Can't help economies of nations working against India: Dhankhar
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New Delhi (PTI): Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Saturday said that people cannot help economies of nations, through import or travel, that are inimical to the interests of India.
His remarks came amid trade and tourism boycott of Turkiye and Azerbaijan following their support to Pakistan in the conflict with India after Operation Sindoor.
Addressing an event here, the vice president said every individual is empowered to help the nation in security. Trade, business, commerce, and industry in particular can play a pivotal role in security issues, he observed.
"Can we afford to empower countries that are inimical to our interests? Time has come when each one of us must deeply think about economic nationalism," he said.
Dhankhar said, "We can no longer afford, by travel or import, to improve economies of those countries because of our participation. And those countries, in times of crisis, are positioned against us."
He said everything has to be reckoned on the fulcrum of unflinching commitment to nationalism.
Turkiye has backed Pakistan and condemned India's strikes on terror camps in the neighbouring country and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) under Operation Sindoor.
Pakistan also used Turkish drones on a large scale during the military conflict with India. Azerbaijan had also expressed support for Pakistan.
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