Gauri's assassins also tracked rationalist Narendra Nayak
Mangaluru: The group accused of murdering journalist Gauri Lankesh also watched the activities of Prof. Narendra Nayak of Mangaluru, the president of Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations, and identified him as a target, reported The Indian Express.
Rajesh Bangera (50), one of the accused in the Gauri murder case, had tracked the movements of Narendra Nayak in Mangaluru for two days in 2016, says SIT in its report to the court.
Bangera, allegedly the arms trainer of the group, trained four youths namely Mohan, Yathin, Yathish and Kumud to use guns before the surveillance began, the police alleged.
A diary recovered from main accused in the Lankesh case, Amol Kale, lists Mysuru's rationalist thinker Prof K S Bhagwan, Mangaluru's rationalist Prof. Narendra Nayak, Swami Nijuguanand and Bengaluru's playwright Girish Karnad as “targets.”
It is also alleged that the diary had listed the names, in code words, of those who would carry out the murders. After assassinating Lankesh, the group had planned to assassin Prof. Bhagwan in Mysore in February 2018. However, the SIT probe in the Lankesh murder achieved a breakthrough, resulting in disruption of the plan.
The police have registered a separate case against seven of the 18 persons accused in the Lankesh murder case on the charges of plotting to murder Prof. Bhagwan.
In its chargesheet, the SIT has documented the finding of 16 bundles of copies of Sanatan Prabhat, the mouthpiece of Sanatan Sanstha, at the home of Bangera after his arrest.
The SIT has filed a 9,235-page chargesheet against 18 persons in the Lankesh case. Of them, 16 arrested and two are still on large.
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Rickelton's ton in vain as SRH beat MI by 6 wickets
Mumbai (PTI): Ryan Rickelton's whirlwind unbeaten ton was overshadowed by Heinrich Klaasen's unbeaten 65 as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets in an IPL match here on Wednesday.
Chasing an imposing 244-run target, Travis Head (76 off 30) and Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24) shared 129 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform for SRH.
Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls) then displayed his all-round hitting abilities to guide SRH home with the help of Nitish Kumar Reddy (21) and Salil Arora (30 not out off 10) in 18.4 overs.
Earlier, Rickelton's knock powered MI to 243 for five.
MI rode on a 93-run stand between Rickelton (123 not out off 55 balls) and Will Jacks (46 off 22) in 7.1 overs for the opening stand to power the side.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya scored a valuable 31 off 15 balls before being dismissed.
Praful Hinge (2/54), Eshan Malinga (1/29), Sakib Hasan (1/39) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (1/31) were the wicket-takers for SRH.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai Indian: 243 for 5 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 123 not out; Praful Hinge 2/54).
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 249 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Travis Head 76, Heinrich Klaasen 65 not out; AM Ghazanfar 2/51).
