Gauri Lankesh case: The journalist was shot dead as she entered her Bengaluru house last year
Journalist Gauri Lankesh's murder investigation will be wrapped up soon, Karnataka Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy said on Wednesday days after a special team questioned a man accused of selling firearms.
Gauri Lankesh, 55, was shot dead at close range by unidentified men outside her home in Bengaluru on the night of September 5 last year. She edited Lankesh Patrike, a weekly newspaper.
"The Investigation will end soon," Mr Reddy said, a suggestion that the police is on the verge of cracking the case. This is not the first time that the minister has spoken of a breakthrough in the case.
Last October, Mr Reddy had insisted that
the police knew who the killers were but was collecting evidence to prove their guilt.
A few weeks later, he went on to declare that Gauri Lankesh's killers will be "
100 per cent" caught in a few weeks.
This time, the remarks come days after special investigation team set up to probe the journalist's murder questioned KT Naveen Kumar, reported to be in his late thirties, for possessing a pistol.
Naveen Kumar has been widely described as a person with links to right-wing groups. BJP leader Shobha Karandlaje had recently accused the Siddaramaiah government of trying to pin the blame on a "Hindu youth". It was seen as a reference to Naveen Kumar.
"Until today, you have not been able to catch the killers of Dr Kalburgi. In the Gauri Lankesh case, you are trying to blame a Hindu youth. The day you released a sketch of the accused that was the last development. Now, unnecessarily, because the elections are getting close, you are targeting a Hindu youth and trying to blame him for the murderer," Ms Karandlaje said at the BJP's Jan Suraksha Yatra yesterday.
Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy did not speak about the special team's conclusions.
"The SIT will answer it as early as possible," he said, when asked whether the police have picked up the right person in the case.