Police yet to establish role of Maharashtra-based Sanatan Sanstha's activists in Gauri Lankesh Gauri Lankesh murder

Karnataka police were yet to establish the role of Maharashtra-based rightwing outfit Sanatan Sanstha's activists in the journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh Gauri Lankesh murder, state deputy chief minister G Parameshwara said today.

The investigation was still on to find out whether the right-wing outfit's activists were involved in the Lankesh murder case, he told reporters here. "The investigation is still on... Nobody has said with absolute clarity and proof that Sanatan Sanstha activists were involved in the murder. The investigation has to be completed first.

Then only we will get all the information," he said. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Lankesh murder case has so far arrested 12 people and some of them were allegedly linked to Sanatan Sanstha and its allied organization Hindu Janajagruti Samiti. Several activists allegedly linked to Sanatan Sanstha have been arrested in connection with the killings of rationalists, including Narendra Dabholkar, recently.

However, the outfit has claimed that those arrested were not its members. Its spokesperson Chetan Rajhans has said that a few people with "progressive mindset", along with political parties such as the Congress and the Left block, were putting the Sanstha in the dock without providing any evidence of wrongdoing.

Replying to a question, Parameswara said any organization posing threat to the internal security of the nation was monitored by the central government and the state government. Accordingly, the action was taken against them, he added. Lankesh, known for her strong anti-Hindutva ideology, was shot dead on September 5 last year outside her house here.

Based on the tip-off given by the SIT, the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) too got leads in the killing of M M Kalburgi, a rationalist who was shot dead on August 30, 2015, at Dharwad. Sources in SIT said they had tipped off the CBI also, which is probing the killing of Dabholkar in Pune on August 20, 2013, in Pune. The CBI has arrested a few people in connection with the case.

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