The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the killing of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh has named Hindu right wing outfit Sanatan Sanstha in its additional charge sheet filed before a Bengaluru court. In the 9,235-page charge sheet submitted before the Principal Civil and Sessions court on Friday evening, it was also stated that the killing of Lankesh was plotted for almost five years.
A network within the Goa-based Sanatan Sanstha targeted Lankesh for no personal reasons, it said. “Sanatan Sanstha members’ involvement is there. We have named them. We have also mentioned its allied organisation,” a top officer in the SIT told PTI here Saturday. Reacting to the charge sheet, Goa-based Sanatan Sanstha dismissed its alleged link with the killing of Lankesh, saying none of the accused were its members. “None of the accused are members of the Sanatan Sanstha. So far, the SIT has not said this officially. If the SIT mentions our name in the supplementary charge sheet, we will fight it legally. So far, we haven’t got the copy (of the charge sheet),” Chetan Rajhans, Sanstha’s head of communication, told the agencies over phone. “Other than this, if any organisation indulges in maligning the name of the organisation without proof, it would face legal consequences,” Rajhans said. Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara, who holds the Home portfolio, Saturday said the government would soon take a call on banning organisations involved in the killing of Lankesh. “No discussions have taken place regarding the organisations involved in the case, but we will shortly take a decision on that,” Parameshwara told reporters. He also refused to divulge information about the progress made in the investigation. “The killer and the killed have no personal or any other enmity. Why she was killed? Because she believed in a certain ideology, she wrote and spoke on that. So it must be an ideology and it must be an organisation,” Special Public Prosecutor S Balan told agencies.
The SIT has also sought permission to investigate the case further.
