Writer and journalist Gauri Lankesh’s murder came as a shock to the country. Ever since the incident, people are wondering as to who could be behind the killing.
Some of the theories suggest that Naxals were behind this case. To clear the air, reformed Naxals Sirimane Nagaraj and Noor Sridhar rubbished these theories.
They went on to blame Sangh Parivar of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, family to have been behind the murder.
On Monday, the reformed Naxals addressed the issue at a press conference and explained that the policy of the Maoist party was ‘Party is secret, Politics is open.’
They were quoted saying, “There is no history of Naxals killing any journalist in India. Forget killing, there are not even supposed to assault anyone. If at all Naxals kill anyone, there is a policy that they have to make the reasons public. Or if they kill someone by mistake under various circumstances, they will apologise publicly. No such development has happened after Ms. Lankesh’s killing.”
They also explained that the Naxals had no logical reason to hate Ms. Lankesh but instead respected her work.
They pointed out, “She was given the tag of ‘Naxal Supporter’ by Sangh Parivar after she criticised the government policy after police killed several Naxals including Saketh Rajan, in encounters.”
The two reformed Naxals gave a valid argument and said, “We came out of the Maoist Party in July 2006 and Ms. Lankesh was no way connected with this. Similarly, seven others came to the mainstream recently. The point is, Naxals who leave arms and come to the mainstream will approach people like Ms. Lankesh many months after they have cut their nexus with the party. As they will be facing cases and want to live a normal life, they will have to undergo surrender procedure. Gauri Lankesh, H.S. Doreswamy and A.K. Subbaiah, who are the members of the committee set up to rehabilitate reformed Naxals, just act as facilitators. Thus, the question of Naxals or factions of it hating Ms. Lankesh.”
After this press conference, BJP state Chief B.S. Yeddyurappa termed the allegations as baseless. He clearly stated, “Let me make it clear the BJP or Sangh Parivar has no link with the murder.”
The latest news about the journalist’s murder was the investigating team analysed the bullets and believe it could have been a 7.65 tapancha gun. However, looking at the number of bullets fired, the team is speculating their claims. As each time a tapancha is fired the gun gets heated up and sometimes the latch can cause problems. The tapancha can be purchased easily for merely Rs. 5,000 but the team also knows that gun production is getting better in the country. The investigation team is awaiting the ballistic report to base their claims.
