Gauri Lankesh murder: Accused worked in four teams?
Bengaluru, June 14: When the SIT officials interrogated the main accused in the journalist Gauri Lankesh murder case, Parashuram Waghmore, they found that the accused have formed four teams to carry out the crime.
All the four teams have their hands in eliminating Gauri Lankesh. Interestingly, all the four teams have distributed the works among themselves. The first team was entrusted the responsibility of keeping vigil on the daily activities of the victim and collection of the writings of Gauri, videos of her speech, statements against Sangh Parivar and Hindutva and other documents. Later, all such collected documents, statements or write ups were passed to the second team.
The work of the second team was to verify those documents, speech copies and videos and submitting them to the third team, which was observing the moment of Gauri round-the-clock. This team has collected information on where does she go, what does she do, whom she meet, what time she returns home, number of CCTV cameras on the places where she passes and other details. In fact, all the details were handed over to the fourth team in writing. The accused have disclosed all these information during the interrogation, sources said.
After collecting the final information, the accused killed Gauri Lankesh at her house at RR Nagar in the city on September 5, 2017. Among the arrested, two members are said to be the members of the fourth team and investigation is on, sources said.
Kale suspected
The SIT suspected the involvement of Amol Kale of Puna in this case. It is said that an organization has given the contract to him to kill someone and he has prepared a plan to execute the work entrusted to him for the last one year. One week before the incident, Kale rented a house at Nayandahalli in Bengaluru and Naveen of a Hindu organization supported him, it is said.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Spain rejects White House claim of military cooperation with US in Iran war
Madrid: Spain has rejected a claim by the White House that Madrid had agreed to cooperate militarily with the United States amid the ongoing conflict with Iran, even as US President Donald Trump warned of trade consequences over Spain’s stance.
Al Jazeera reported that White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday that Spain had reconsidered its earlier position of not allowing its military bases to be used in the war against Iran.
“With respect to Spain, I think they heard the president’s message yesterday loud and clear, and it’s my understanding, over the past several hours, they’ve agreed to cooperate with the US military,” Leavitt said.
Clearly denying the assertion, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said the claim was incorrect and insisted that Madrid’s position had not changed. “Not a single comma has changed, and I have no idea whatsoever what they might be referring to,” Albares said in an interview with the Hora25 radio programme.
ALSO READ: BJP's earning accounted for 85 per cent of total income of national parties in 2024-25: ADR Report
Trump had earlier criticised Spain’s opposition to the war, describing its stance as “terrible” and threatening economic retaliation. “We’re going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain,” he said on Tuesday.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez reaffirmed his government’s opposition to the conflict, recalling past military interventions in the region. “The world, Europe, and Spain have faced this critical moment before. In 2003, a few irresponsible leaders dragged us into an illegal war in the Middle East that brought nothing but insecurity and pain,” Sánchez wrote on social media.
He added that Spain’s position remained firmly against war, violations of international law and “the illusion that we can solve the world’s problems with bombs”.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian praised Spain’s stand, saying it reflected ethical responsibility.
“Spain’s responsible conduct in opposing the Zionist-American coalition’s flagrant human rights violations and military aggression against countries, including Iran, shows that ethics and awakened consciences still exist in the West,” he wrote in a post on social media.
Within Europe, Spain has been among the few countries to openly oppose the attacks on Iran. The European Union has instead called for de-escalation and protection of civilians without directly rejecting the US and Israeli military action.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Iran’s missile and nuclear programmes and its support for armed groups pose a serious threat to global security, adding that the bloc has imposed sanctions on Tehran while continuing to back diplomatic engagement on the nuclear issue.
