Gauri Lankesh Was Anti-Hindu, Had To Be Killed, Says Arrested Man in Confession to Police

Naveen Kumar, the alleged illegal arms dealer confessed to the police that he supplied bullets to kill Gauri Lankesh as a right wing activist dubbed the senior journalist as ''Anti-Hindu''.

Written by: India.com News Desk Edited by: Kanimozhi Sudhakar

Updated: June 8, 2018, 3:15 PM IST

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Amnesty India on Gauri Lankesh's death anniversary

BENGALURU, June 8: The first man arrested in the Gauri Lankesh murder case has confessed to the police that he supplied bullets to a rightwing activist who dubbed senior journalist Gauri Lankesh as “Anti-Hindu”, according to a report by NDTV. The accused, KT Naveen Kumar, is a member of a pro-Hindu outfit and founded the Hindu Yuva Sene in 2014, the report cited police as saying.

The 12-page statement made by KT Naveen Kumar to the Special Investigation Team revealed his strategic plan and extreme hatred to eliminate senior journalist Gauri Lankesh. The statement forms a part of the 131 points charge-sheet filed by the police nine months after Gauri Lankesh’s death. The route map marked by the killers clearly shows the numerous angles leading to Gauri Lankesh’s house in Bengaluru. According to the police charge-sheet, the murder was planned in Bengaluru and Belgaum.

Influenced by the right wing ideology, Naveen Kumar dropped out of college in Mysore. He was alleged to have visited  Pramod Muthalik, founder of Sri Ram Sena (right wing group), in Mangalore. Naveen happened to meet a man named Praveen in a conference called “Hindu Janagruthi Samita”

“Praveen came home, met me and my wife and said he needed bullets.” Naveen showed his bullets and gave two of them to Praveen. However Praveen declared them ”useless”. According to the confession made by Naveen, Praveen was in need of good bullets to kill Gauri Lankesh as she was anti-Hindu. However Naveen could not buy new bullets and couldn’t communicate with Praveen as he had no mobile phone.

On September 5, when Gauri Lankesh was murdered, Naveen Kumar claims that he went to Mangalore. He confessed that he learnt the death of the journalist from the newspapers.

Naveen, the alleged illegal arms dealer, also admitted to a plot to kill professor KS Bhagawan, an Indian rationalist. The phone call records of Naveen plotting the professor’s murder reportedly forms a part of the charge sheet. Prof. Bhagawan has received special police protection, since the murder of rationalist MM Kalburgi in 2015 in Dharwad.