Gauri Lankesh's Sister Opposes Move to Pass on Murder Probe to CBI, Says Satisfied With SIT

Bengaluru: Slain journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh's sister Kavitha Lankesh on Thursday came out against any move to handover the probe in the case to the CBI, saying the Special Investigation Team of the Karnataka police had made a lot of progress, arresting 16 suspects.

Kavitha said if the state government agreed to the CBI probe, she would seek to implead herself in the matter in the Supreme Court and oppose it.

Her comments come in the backdrop of the apex court recently favouring CBI probe into the murders of Gauri Lankesh, rationalist MM Kalburgi and social activist Govind Pansare if there was a "common thread" in these incidents which occurred over the last five years.

"The SIT led by IG BK Singh and investigation officer MN Anucheth did a brilliant work by arresting the accused in the case. It filed two charge sheets also. When there is so much headway, it does not make any sense to hand over the case to CBI," she told PTI here.

However, Kalburgi's son Sreevijaya said he was having faith in judiciary and whatever it did will be in the best interest of his family.

"We will go by whatever judiciary feels good. At the end of the day we want justice in the case," he said.

On December 11, a bench of justices U U Lalit and Navin Sinha of the Supreme Court had asked the CBI, already probing the killing of social activist Narendra Dabholkar, to inform it by January first week whether it would like to investigate the three other cases also.

It observed that one probe agency should investigate all the four cases, if prima facie it appears that there is a "common thread" in the murders.

Earlier, the Karnataka police in its status report told the top court that there appears to be an "intimate connection" between the murders of Kalburgi in 2015 and Gauri Lankesh in 2017.

Gauri Lankesh was shot dead in front of her house here on September 5, 2017 and the SIT has so far arrested 16 people for their alleged involvement in the killing while two others are still at large.

Some of the people arrested in the case are allegedly linked to Sanatan Sanstha and its allied outfit Hindu Janajagruti Samiti.