Gauri Lankesh's murder was planned a year before: Exclusive details
Bengaluru, August 29: The idea of creating a 'Hindu Rashtra' led to four activists being murdered by one nameless underground organisation. The organisation has members from Sanatan Sanstha, Hindu Janajagruti Samiti and many other right wing organisations, according to the Special Investigation Team (SIT).
The mastermind of Gauri Lankesh's assassination Amol Kale was a former Hindu Janajagruti Samiti convener and another accused Amit Degwekar was a sadhak in the Sanathan Sanstha.
The nameless underground organisation had a hit list with 26 names across the country and it consisted of 60 people who were planning to execute the assassinations. The SIT shared as many as 14 names on the hit list with Maharashtra Police and Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).
The recent arrests of many right-wing members in Mumbai, Maharashtra were based on the information provided by Karnataka SIT. According to the information the detonators and weapons were in possession of members of many right-wing organisations.
UNEARTHING GAURI LANKESH'S MURDER PLOT
The SIT has found that the plan to kill Gauri Lankesh started almost a year before the actual murder took place on September 5, 2017. Amol Kale hired the alleged killer Parashuram Waghmare - a member of Sri Ram Sene.
Waghmare was told to kill Lankesh for the sake of saving Hindu dharam. Kale then took Waghmare to an isolated three-acre land in Khanapur, Belgaum to practice shooting using an air pistol.
Waghmare first came to Bengaluru in July 2017 and did a recce of Gauri's house.
DAY OF THE MURDER
According to the police, Waghmare didn't know any of his associates by name. He only knew them through their aliases. Waghmare was told that someone will pick him up on a bike and he has to pull the trigger of the 7.65 mm country-made pistol.
On September 5 at 8.09 pm, Waghmare arrived on a black motorcycle outside Lankesh's house and assassinated her.
He was accompanied by another man Ganesh Miskin. Ganesh was also carrying a gun, if in case Waghmare failed to hit the target.
Once Gauri Lankesh was shot, Ganesh Miskin and Waghmare rushed towards Mysore Road and met another accused Amit Baddi, who was waiting in a Maruti Omni van. Waghmare and Ganesh Miskin, upon reaching the spot at Mysore Road, handed over the gun, bike, clothes, helmet, and shoes to Amit Baddi.
Both the shooters then headed towards Nelamangala, which is on the outskirts of Bengaluru, to meet another associate Bharat Kurne.
Kurne helped them to board a bus to North Karnataka.
Meanwhile, Amit Baddi took the gun, clothes and the bike to a safe house in Kumbalgodu. The belongings along with the murder weapon were removed from the safe house by Sudhanva Gondhalekar 10 days later. Gondhalekar was recently arrested in Maharashtra.
ROLE OF EACH ACCUSED
Investigating officers feel that the murder was meticulously planned and micro-managed by mastermind Amol Kale. The SIT has arrested 12 people till now in Gauri Lankesh's murder case.
- KT Naveen Kumar - Abettor of the conspiracy; was involved in procuring arms for next assassination
- Sujith Kumar - Recruiter of the murderer (Parashuram Waghmare)
- Amol Kale - Mastermind of the assassination
- Amit Degwekar - Deputy head of the group
- Manohar Edave - Involved in conspiring the murder
- Parashuram Waghmare - The alleged shooter
- Rajesh Bangera - Arms trainer
- Ganesh Maskin - Bike rider
- Amit Baddi - Collected weapon and took it to safe place
- Suresh - House owner where weapon was hidden
- Bharat Kurne - Owner of land where Waghmare practised shooting in 2017
- Mohan Naik - Rented a house for weapon to be kept after the murder
FOUR MURDERS ONE DIARY
When Amol Kale was arrested a few months ago, the SIT found a diary in his possession which had some codes. They cracked the codes and managed to get names and numbers of the other accused in the murder.
When the investigators dug deep into the information in the diary, they realised Amol Kale was also involved in murders of Govind Pansare, Narendra Dabholkar and MM Kalburgi.
Till Kalburgi's murder, Dr Virendra Tawde was heading the nameless organisation, but after his arrest, Amol Kale took over as the head of the group. The information in the diary was shared by the SIT with their counterparts in Maharashtra and many right-wing members were put under surveillance, which resulted in the recent arrests.
WEAPON USED FOR MURDER
Sources in SIT said that the weapon used for Gauri Lankesh's murder and other murders was procured and manufactured by Sharad Kalaskar, who was also arrested by the ATS.
SIT believes that the two guns were used for all four murders.
On the day of the murder, the gang carried two guns. In Pansare's killing both guns were used. In Gauri, Kalburgi, Dabholkar killing, one gun was used, but the second gun was present at the crime scene.
- Said a source from SIT
According to SIT, the weapons seized by ATS in Mumbai consist of these two guns. SIT will now seek the custody of the weapon and send it to forensic laboratory for tests.
HABITUAL OFFENDERS
Amol Kale and gang allegedly threw petrol bombs at a theater in Belgaum during the screening of controversial movie Padmavat. The SIT also unearthed another plot where the same gang had gone to a western music concert in Pune on 2017's New Year's Eve.
The mission was aborted as the gang found CCTV cameras and became alert, and the plan was shelved.
Courtesy: www.indiatoday.in
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Netanyahu recommends his Cabinet approve Hezbollah cease-fire proposal
Beirut, Nov 26: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that he would recommend his cabinet adopt a United States-brokered ceasefire agreement with Lebanon's Hezbollah, as Israeli warplanes struck across Lebanon, killing at least 23 people.
The Israeli military also issued a flurry of evacuation warnings — a sign it was aiming to inflict punishment on Hezbollah down to the final moments before any ceasefire takes hold. For the first time in the conflict, Israeli ground troops reached parts of Lebanon's Litani River, a focal point of the emerging deal.
In a televised statement, Netanyahu said he would present the ceasefire to Cabinet ministers later on Tuesday, setting the stage for an end to nearly 14 months of fighting.
Netanyahu said the vote was expected later Tuesday. It was not immediately clear when the ceasefire would go into effect, and the exact terms of the deal were not released. The deal does not affect Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, which shows no signs of ending.
The evacuation warnings covered many areas, including parts of Beirut that previously have not been targeted. The warnings, coupled with fear that Israel was ratcheting up attacks before a ceasefire, sent residents fleeing. Traffic was gridlocked, and some cars had mattresses tied to them. Dozens of people, some wearing their pajamas, gathered in a central square, huddling under blankets or standing around fires as Israeli drones buzzed loudly overhead.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, kept up its rocket fire, triggering air raid sirens across northern Israel.
Lebanese officials have said Hezbollah also supports the deal. If approved by all sides, the deal would be a major step toward ending the Israel-Hezbollah war that has inflamed tensions across the region and raised fears of an even wider conflict between Israel and Hezbollah's patron, Iran.
The deal calls for a two-month initial halt in fighting and would require Hezbollah to end its armed presence in a broad swath of southern Lebanon, while Israeli troops would return to their side of the border. Thousands of Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers would deploy in the south, and an international panel headed by the United States would monitor all sides' compliance.
But implementation remains a major question mark. Israel has demanded the right to act should Hezbollah violate its obligations. Lebanese officials have rejected writing that into the proposal. Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz insisted on Tuesday that the military would strike Hezbollah if the U.N. peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, doesn't provide “effective enforcement” of the deal.
“If you don't act, we will act, and with great force,” Katz said, speaking with UN special envoy Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert.
The European Union's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said Tuesday that Israel's security concerns had been addressed in the deal also brokered by France.
“There is not an excuse for not implementing a ceasefire. Otherwise, Lebanon will fall apart,” Borrell told reporters in Italy on the sidelines of a Group of Seven meeting. He said France would participate on the ceasefire implementation committee at Lebanon's request.
Bombardment of Beirut's southern suburbs continues
Even as Israeli, US, Lebanese and international officials have expressed growing optimism over a ceasefire, Israel has continued its campaign in Lebanon, which it says aims to cripple Hezbollah's military capabilities.
An Israeli strike on Tuesday levelled a residential building in the central Beirut district of Basta — the second time in recent days warplanes have hit the crowded area near the city's downtown. At least seven people were killed and 37 wounded, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry.
Three people were killed in a separate strike in Beirut and three in a strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon. Lebanese state media said another 10 people were killed in the eastern Baalbek province. Israel says it targets Hezbollah fighters and their infrastructure.
Earlier, Israeli jets struck at least six buildings in Beirut's southern suburbs. One strike slammed near the country's only airport, sending plumes of smoke into the sky. The airport has continued to function despite its location on the Mediterranean coast next to the densely populated suburbs where many of Hezbollah's operations are based.
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee issued evacuation warnings for 20 buildings in the suburbs, as well as a warning for the southern town of Naqoura where UNIFIL is headquartered.
UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti told The Associated Press that peacekeepers will not evacuate.
Other strikes hit in the southern city of Tyre, where the Israeli military said it killed a local Hezbollah commander.
The Israeli military also said its ground troops clashed with Hezbollah forces and destroyed rocket launchers in the Slouqi area on the eastern end of the Litani River, a few kilometres from the Israeli border.
Previous ceasefire hopes were dashed
Under the ceasefire deal, Hezbollah would be required to move its forces north of the Litani, which in some places is about 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of the border.
A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, the strongest Iranian-backed force in the region, would likely significantly calm regional tensions that have led to fears of a direct, all-out war between Israel and Iran. It's not clear how the ceasefire will affect the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Hezbollah had long insisted that it would not agree to a ceasefire until the war in Gaza ends, but it dropped that condition.
Hezbollah began firing into northern Israel, saying it was showing support for the Palestinians, a day after Hamas carried out its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, triggering the Gaza war. Israel returned fire on Hezbollah, and the two sides have been exchanging barrages ever since.
Israel escalated its campaign of bombardment in mid-September and later sent troops into Lebanon, vowing to put an end to Hezbollah fire so tens of thousands of evacuated Israelis could return to their homes.
More than 3,760 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon the past 13 months, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The bombardment has driven 1.2 million people from their homes. Israel says it has killed more than 2,000 Hezbollah members.
Hezbollah fire has forced some 50,000 Israelis to evacuate in the country's north, and its rockets have reached as far south in Israel as Tel Aviv. At least 75 people have been killed, more than half of them civilians. More than 50 Israeli soldiers have died in the ground offensive in Lebanon.
After previous hopes for a ceasefire were dashed, U.S. officials cautioned that negotiations were not yet complete and noted there could be last-minute hitches that delay or destroy an agreement.
“Nothing is done until everything is done,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said.
While the ceasefire proposal is expected to be approved if Netanyahu brings it to a vote in his security Cabinet, one hard-line member, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, said he would oppose it. He said on X that a deal with Lebanon would be a “big mistake” and a “missed historic opportunity to eradicate Hezbollah.”
