Gauri Lankesh was targeted by right-wing, casteist groups: sister in court

On Monday, Kavitha, who had filed the murder complaint, was questioned by defence lawyers regarding her statements in 2017 about her suspicion of right-wing groups being involved in the murder. She told the court that she linked these groups on the basis of remarks made on social media about Lankesh’s activism. Defence advocates claimed that a deliberate effort was made soon after the murder to direct the probe towards involvement of right-wing groups. During the course of the cross-examination of Kavitha, lawyers for the 17 arrested accused attempted to suggest that personal rivalries of Lankesh, including differences within the family or due to her association with radical Left-wing activists, could be a reason for her murder.

The 17 accused were produced via video-conferencing from Bengaluru central prison and Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai. One accused, lodged in Pune’s Yerawada Jail, was not produced by jail authorities.

Monday’s trial began at a sessions court here with recording of statements of another witness (court witness number 4), who met several of the accused in meetings held two months after the murder to allegedly plot another killing. The trial got underway more than three years after a Special Investigation Team of Karnataka Police filed its chargesheet accusing 18 persons (17 have been arrested) of executing the murder. The accused are linked to a secretive group that was targeting people declared to be “anti-Hindu”, as per the codes of the group, according to the police.

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