Gauri Lankesh case: 3 key accused identified by witnesses as users of North Bengaluru hideout before murder

Witnesses and accused they identified

A cab driver and a mobile phone mechanic who lived in the Policeappa Building in the Seegehalli area of North Bengaluru when the murder was planned and executed in 2017 identified three key accused during the trial held in the second week of January.

They identified Amol Kale, a former HJS convenor from Pune and alleged chief planner, Parashuram Waghmore, a former Sri Rama Sena activist from Vijayapura and the alleged shooter, and Ganesh Miskin from Hubbali, the alleged rider of the motorcycle who brought the shooter to the journalist’s residence on the night of the murder.

During the trial, the mobile phone mechanic identified Amol Kale as the person he had seen entering the second-floor residence of his neighbour H L Suresh, a HJS activist who allegedly provided logistical support for the murder, in the first week of September 2017.

The mechanic who lived in the adjacent house on the second floor of the Policeappa Building reported seeing a stranger unlocking and entering the house of Suresh when he and his family were away in early September 2017.

The witness who reported seeing the suspect at night after he returned from work had earlier identified Amol Kale as the person he had seen during a police identification parade in 2018. Last week, he identified Kale again as the person he had seen during the case trial.

The cab driver, who was also a resident of the Policeappa Building, reported seeing two strangers who arrived on a Splendor motorcycle and entered the residence of H L Suresh one morning in September 2017.

The driver, who identified the strangers as Parashuram Waghmore and Ganesh Miskin during the police identification parade in 2018, identified the men again during the trial last week as those whom he had seen at the building in 2017.

Accused H L Suresh’s house

According to the findings of the Special Investigation Team of the Karnataka Police in the Gauri Lankesh murder case, key members of the right-wing gang involved in the murder – Amol Kale, Amit Baddi, Ganesh Miskin, Parshuram Waghmore and Bharat Kurne – met in the house of H L Suresh ahead of the crime.

Suresh, who has also been arrested in the case, allegedly vacated his house from September 2, 2017, to September 6, 2017, to allow the leader of the plot Amol Kale and others to use it as an alternative hideout for the execution of the murder.

After the murder, one of the accused Amit Baddi is alleged to have deposited articles – clothes, guns etc – used by the gang for the murder at a designated spot at Suresh’s home. These were later recovered by other gang members from a shop building rented by Suresh in the same Seegehalli area.

Witness declared hostile

During the trial last week one of the witnesses linked to the HJS who is alleged to have loaned his Splendor motorcycle to H L Suresh to facilitate the recce of Gauri Lankesh’s home by the main accused turned hostile. The witness denied his association with the HJS and the ownership of the bike that was still registered in his mother’s name.

Special Public Prosecutor S Balan, who declared the witness hostile, also questioned him about the presence of H L Suresh at his wedding and pictures on his social media account of HJS activities in Karnataka where he participated. The witness denied association with H L Suresh and the HJS.

The witness linked to the HJS is the second of more than 100 prosecution witnesses examined so far to be declared hostile by the SPP during the trial.

Previous witnesses who turned hostile

In August 2023, a prosecution witness who was identified among the people recruited by the right-wing extremist gang involved in the Lankesh murder turned hostile and denied attending meetings and a training camp of the group.

The prosecution witness had earlier stated in a court about going to Pune for arms training at the instance of Praveen Kumar alias Sujit Kumar, a recruiter for the right-wing extremist outfit linked to the murder.

Since the trial began on July 4, 2022, the special court has examined more than 100 of the over 400 witnesses in the case. The Karnataka government has sought a special court exclusively for the case to expedite the trial. One of the accused, Mohan Nayak, who organised logistics for the murder was granted bail in December 2023 by the Karnataka HC citing delay in the trial.

Investigation, accused background and charges

The Karnataka Police SIT has named 17 people from right-wing fringe outfits for the conspiracy and murder of Gauri Lankesh. The accused have been charged with murder and involvement in an organised crime activity under the Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act (KCOCA) 2000.

The journalist was killed after four bullets were fired at her by a man now identified by the SIT as Parashuram Waghmore, a former activist of the right-wing Sri Rama Sena.

A forensic analysis of the four empty cartridges and the four bullets fired to kill Lankesh showed that the markings on the bullets and cartridges were the same as markings found on bullets and cartridges recovered from the site of the killing of Kannada scholar and researcher M M Kalburgi in Dharwad on August 30, 2015.

Findings from the comparison of ballistic evidence from the Lankesh and Kalburgi cases also revealed that the 7.65 mm country-made gun used in the two murders in Karnataka had also been used in the shooting of the Leftist thinker Govind Pansare, 81, in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur on February 16, 2015.

The ballistic evidence also indicated that one of the two guns used in the Pansare murder was used to kill the rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, 69, in Pune on August 20, 2013.

“The members of this organisation targeted persons whom they identified to be inimical to their belief and ideology. The members strictly followed the guidelines and principles mentioned in ‘Kshatra Dharma Sadhana’, a book published by Sanatan Sanstha,” the SIT said after it filed a 9,235-page chargesheet against the accused in the Lankesh murder case on November 23, 2018.