Gauri Lankesh murder case: Seized diary shows two hitlists, Lankesh was Number 2 on one
Bengaluru : THE NAME of Gauri Lankesh was No. 2 on one of two lists with a total of 34 names, who were marked in 2016 for murder in a diary recovered from a key suspect linked to a radical Hindutva group, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Karnataka Police has found. Lankesh was shot dead outside her house a year later, on September 5, 2017.
All the other persons based in Karnataka named in the diary, including theatre legend Girish Karnad whose name was No. 1 on the Lankesh list, have been provided state security. A majority of names from the two lists are from Karnataka and Maharashtra, sources told The Indian Express, adding that security agencies in other states have been alerted.
The diary was among documents found in the possession of Amol Kale, 37, a resident of Pune and a former convenor of the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS). It shows that the name of Lankesh and 33 others from all over India were drawn up allegedly by the suspect in August 2016.
Kale is suspected to be a key figure in a covert unit linked to the Sanatan Sanstha and its affiliate, the HJS. He was arrested from the Davangere region of Karnataka on May 21 and has been identified by the SIT probing the Lankesh murder as the head of operations of the group that killed her.
The probe has also found that the 55-year-old journalist activist, like the others on the list, was chosen as a target for the strong stance she took against radical Hindutva in her speeches and articles over the years.
In documents validating the seizures made following the arrest of Kale and filed in a court in Bengaluru, the SIT has stated that a sheet with eight names in English — including Nidumamidi Swamiji, a seer opposed to superstition, at No. 8 — were found in the diary in Kale’s possession.
The documents also state that a second list of 26 names was found in another page of the diary with the dateline August 22, 2016. The SIT suspects that the two lists, comprising the names of 34 persons known to be opponents of radical Hindutva, were drawn up by Kale in consultation with others. The diary was found to have been printed in July 2016.
“These lists were some kind of tentative collection of names compiled at the end of discussions by a small group of people. They seem to be random lists which would undergo changes. Though Lankesh was named at No. 2, she was targeted first,’’ police sources said.
The SIT investigation has revealed that Kale deployed 26-year-old Parashuram Waghmare from the Vijayapura region in north Karnataka, whom he recruited and trained using the radical network of Sanatan Sanstha and HJS in Karnataka and Maharashtra, to kill Lankesh.
The SIT suspects that the execution of the plot began around eight months prior to the murder with one of the suspects identifying Lankesh’s house and carrying out a preliminary recce.
The plot gathered momentum in June 2017, the SIT has indicated in court documents. “In June 2017, Amol Kale alias Bhaisaab and Dada (a missing suspect) summoned the accused Manohar Edave alias Manoj to the Sweekar Hotel in Belgaum and told him to study the movements and routine of Gauri Lankesh who had been criticizing the Hindu religion,’’ the SIT stated in a May 31 remand plea in court.
The SIT probe found that Kale and the four others arrested began plotting the murder of Kannada writer and academic Prof K S Bhagwan in Mysuru two months after the execution of the plot to kill Lankesh.
Bhagwan’s name is among those found in Kale’s diary. Among the others on the lists are Kannada writers, Yogesh Master, Chandrashekhar Patil and Banajagere Jayaprakash, and former Karnataka backward castes commission chairman C S Dwarkanath.
Several of them, including Karnad, were provided protection soon after the murder of Lankesh. Jayaprakash, Bhagwan, Patil and Yogesh are among the literary personalities, apart from Baragur Ramachandrappa, Patil Putappa, Chennaveera Kanavi and Nataraj Huliyar, who have been provided state protection. Security cover has also been provided to Narendra Nayak, the rationalist, and S M Jamdar, the former IAS officer and proponent of a separate religion status for the Lingayat community.
The diary entries of Kale and an associate Sujeet Kumar, 38, a former activist of the HJS from Karnataka, have revealed that a covert network of nearly 30 Hindutva activists was assembled in the state to carry out subversive activities.
The SIT has so far arrested nine persons allegedly involved in the murder, including alleged shooter Waghmare. On Monday, it arrested a 27-year-old man from Hubli, Ganesh Miskin, who allegedly took Waghmare to Lankesh’s residence on a motorcycle. It also arrested another Hubbali resident, 28-year-old Amit Baddi, who allegedly drove one of the two cars used to support the operation.
courtesy : indianexpress.com
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Three company directors held in Rs 100-crore investment fraud in Kochi
Kochi (Kerala) (PTI): Police on Sunday arrested three directors of a firm accused of cheating hundreds of investors of over Rs 100 crore through a fake investment scheme linked to agricultural tourism here, officials said.
The accused were identified as Muraleedharan, Ashik Murali and Akhil Murali, all natives of Thrissur.
The arrests were made by the Kalamassery police in connection with a fraud involving ATCOS (Agri Tourism Cooperative Society), a firm headquartered at Pathadipalam here.
Police said the company had promised high returns by collecting investments from the public in the agricultural tourism sector, but allegedly cheated hundreds of people and fled with the money.
ATCOS was registered under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act and operated 13 branches across various districts in Kerala, besides a branch in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, officials said.
When investors failed to receive their promised returns or the invested amount, complaints were filed with the police.
Officials said around 54 cases have been registered against the firm in 32 police stations across the state, including 29 cases at the Kalamassery police station alone.
Following instructions from Kochi City Police Commissioner K S Mahesh Kumar, a special investigation team was formed under the supervision of Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Shehensha and Thrikkakara ACP Manoj Kumar.
The team traced the accused to an apartment in Amala Nagar in Thrissur, where they had been hiding after secretly renting the flat, officials said.
The bank accounts of the accused have been frozen, and steps have been initiated to trace their assets, officials said.
Police also conducted a raid at the company’s office at Pathadipalam and seized several documents related to the case.
The accused were produced before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in Kalamassery, which remanded them to judicial custody and sent them to Kakkanad jail.
Police said they would seek the custody of the accused for further interrogation as the investigation continues.
