BENGALURU: A second suspect identified in the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh could be a man from Maharashtra with a red-corner notice issued by the Interpol at the instance of the National Investigation Agency for links to a bomb blast in Goa nine years ago. Official sources identified this suspect as Praveen Limkar, a 34 year old from Kolhapur and an activist of Sanatan Sanstha, the radical Hindutva outfit. Limkar was declared missing along with four others after he was accused by the NIA of playing a major role in an October 19, 2009, blast in Madgaon where two Sanatan Sanstha men were killed while transporting an IED to be planted at a Diwali programme.
Six months after the murder of the senior journalist, a special police team probing the case made the first arrest last week. They have got five more days to continue the interrogation of KT Naveen Kumar, who was taken into custody for questioning a week ago. Naveen Kumar of Mandya district in Karnataka, was caught at the Bengaluru city bus stand by the state police's central crime branch on February 18 for allegedly being in illegal possession of a weapon and ammunition.
Sources in the team said they believe Naveen Kumar played a “small but significant” role in the murder of the Lankesh, who was shot dead at close range by unidentified men outside her home in Bengaluru on the night of September 5 last year. However, he is not being considered one of the main accused or the man who actually pulled the trigger but there is hope he will be able to give vital clues to the investigators.
Lankesh, 55, a critic of right-wing ideology and a fierce advocate of secularism, edited Gauri Lankesh Patrike, a weekly newspaper. Her death was seen as part of a series of unsolved killings of rationalists that included Professor MM Kalburgi, who was shot outside his home in Dharwad in north Karnataka in 2015. Three other men linked to the Sanatan Sanstha - Jayaprakash alias Anna, 45, from Mangalore; Sarang Akolkar, 38, from Pune; and, Rudra Patil, 37, from Sangli - are also accused in the case and have been declared missing.
