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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Chilakutpeta (Andhra Pradesh) (PTI): Five engineering students who were observing Ayyappa Swamy deeksha (penance) have been killed in an accident here in Palnadu district when their car crashed into a truck from behind, said a police official.
Police said the accident occurred late on Thursday on the new bypass road in Chilakutpeta after the truck driver allegedly slowed down his vehicle suddenly.
"Four students died on the spot, and another person succumbed to his injuries at a private hospital," the official told PTI.
The students were travelling from Guntur to Penukonda in Sri Satya Sai district, police said. Meanwhile, police registered a case under relevant sections of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
