Forensic Reports Suggest That Same Gun Was Used To Kill Gauri Lankesh And Kalburgi
Image Credits | Indian Express

Forensic Reports Suggest That Same Gun Was Used To Kill Gauri Lankesh And Kalburgi

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In a recent development, a forensic report by a Karnataka Police Special Investigation Team (SIT) suggests that the same gun was used to kill Kannada scholar and researcher M M Kalburgi and journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh.

The report, which was attached to the charge sheet filed by the SIT in the Lankesh murder case suggests that both Lankesh and Kalburgi, who were murdered two years apart, were shot with the same 7.65 mm country gun. This report is the first official indication by any government agency of the connection between the two murders. The charge sheet was placed before the court of the third additional chief metropolitan magistrate on May 30, as reported by the Indian Express.

According to Times of India Kiran Kumar, Assistant Director (firearms section), FSL, said, “The cartridge cases in Article 2, 3, 4 and 5 and the cartridge cases in Article 6 and 7 concerned in the Vidyagiri police station Crime No 142/15 vide FAS/150/15 have been fired through a single country made pistol chambered for 7.65 mm caliber pistol cartridges.”

The report also states that the “class characteristic marks” and “individual characteristic marks” of the firing pin on cartridge cases in the two murder cases are tallying. From the analysis of individual marks on cartridges, it confirms that they were fired from the same pistol. Not only that, the “Micro Station lines,” or microscopic scratches, on the bullets that were recovered from the Lankesh Murder crime scene, are tallying among themselves and with those in the other case.

On the evening of September 5, 2017, Gauri Lankesh had just returned from work, when an unidentified man wearing a helmet arrived outside her home and fired four bullets at Gauri Lankesh (55). Whereas, Kalburgi (77) was shot dead in his house on August 30, 2015.

The Special Investigation Team has arrested five persons associated with Right-wing groups — Sanatan Sanstha and Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) — who are suspected to have been involved in the murder.

In a charge sheet filed against, Naveen Kumar from Maddur in Karnataka (the first accused), the SIT stated that the late journalist-activist was killed for making statements against the Hindu religion and Gods. Kumar has close links with several radical Hindu outfits.

Last week, the SIT arrested four more men believed to have played a part in the murder—, Amol Kale from Pune, Sujeet Kumar from Udupi, Manohar Edave from Vijayapura and Amit Degwekar from Ponda


Also published on Medium.

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Editor : Ankit Sharma Sharma

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