Gauri Lankesh Murder Timeline

September 5th every year is celebrated across the nation as a tribute to our teachers. This year, however, was different. We’re following the Gauri Lankesh Timeline whereas other public media was flooded with Teachers’ Day and Ganapati Visarjan specials, the setting sun had a sinistrous agenda.

At 8.30p.m., senior journalist and right-wing critic Gauri Lankesh was shot dead while she was about to enter her place at Rajarajeshwari Nagar in Bengaluru. While the killer and the reason behind this gruesome crime remains unknown to date, let us give you a sincere top-down of facts, as per the police records and statements.

Gauri Lankesh Timeline from Bengaluru Police Files:

Gauri Lankesh was lying in a pool of blood in front of her house after being shot with when the police arrived. According to Bengaluru Police Commissioner, T. Suneel Kumar, the veteran journalist was shot with as many as 7 bullets, out of which 3 hit her while others hit the walls of her house. Out of the 3 bullets, two hit her chest area and the other hit her forehead. Going by the CCTV camera footages in the vicinity of Lankesh’s residence, it is believed that she was being followed in a car at 7.30 pm. As she reached the gates of her residence, three men on a motorbike opened fire. However, men couldn’t be identified as they were wearing helmets. And, this was the main juncture of the Gauri Lankesh Timeline.

Also Read WHO WAS GAURI LANKESH, HER HUSBAND AND WHY SHE WAS MURDERED?

Soon after the attack on the 55-year old journalist, two men were detained by the police for interrogation, owing to their hate tweets against Lankesh. The two men named Manju Mallyarjun and Sandeep are based out of Chikmagalur and Mangaluru respectively. Accordingly, the police have deployed teams to these areas to investigate any further leads to the crime.

What’s interesting to note over here is that the pistol used to kill Lankesh was of the same make as that used for killing Karnataka-based prominent progressive thinker and researcher, M.M. Kalburgi in the year 2015 and others like Govind Pansare, etc. What’s important to understand here is that both Kalburgi and Lankesh shared the same ideology. Both of them were critical of right-wing politics and Bharatiya Janata Party.

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Gauri Lankesh was the editor of prominent Kannada weekly newspaper, Lankesh Patrike, founded by her father, Sri P. Lankes Always looked up to by her colleagues as a fearless woman, she was known for her strong stance against the imposition of Hindi and or Hindi in Karnataka. Consequentially, she has always stayed critical of the BJP’s efforts of replacing Kannada with Hindi, saying that the former was a much older language in history than the latter.

All this said the police is currently investigating the angle of similar lines of the crime as that in the cases of M.M. Kalburgi.

From the Kith and Kin on Gauri Lankesh Timeline

Having gotten divorced after 5 years each of courtship and marriage with ex-husband Chidanand Rajghatta, Gauri Lankesh is survived by her siblings Indrajit and Kavita, both of whom are prominent filmmakers in the Kannada film industry.

“On our day in court, as we stood next to each other, our hands reached out. Fingers interlaced. If you want to go your own ways, better disengage, the lawyer hissed.”

                                  -Chidanand Rajghatta to TOI

 The reason I chose to quote an estranged yet bereaved partner is that there are moments in life that are enough to describe a person. Here, the person being Lankesh. No matter how fearless, strong and outright stubborn she might be made to sound today, those words of the only man she had loved are enough to resonate with a woman of substance.

“Forget all other labels: leftist, radical, anti-Hindutva, secular etc. For me, there is just this: She is the epitome of Amazing Grace.”

                                                                                                                                  -Chidanand Rajghatta to Times of India

The fact that an ex-had found it necessary to let his heart out in front of the public is reason enough to believe she wore her heart on her sleeves.

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Back in the year 2001, there had been reports of ideological differences between Lankesh(Editor) and her brother Indrajit(Proprietor & publisher) who were jointly managing their father’s founded newspaper ‘Lankesh Patrike’, a popular weekly publication in Karnataka. The differences soon turned too sour to be contained and became very much public in Feb 2005 when Indrajit filed a police complaint against his sister alleging her of stealing a computer, printer, and scanner from the publication’s office. In her response, Lankesh filed a counter-complaint alleging her brother threatened her with a revolver as he was disapproving of her social activism. The very report that led to a rift between the siblings was about a Naxalite attack on policemen that Gauri had approved for publication but was later withdrawn by Indrajit, quoting it was a pro-Naxalite move by his sister. As on today, many of her friends and colleagues have been heard saying she believed in bringing back Naxalite to the mainstream and hence her views were always opposed to any extremist politics.

As the reports of the sibling rifts back in time came into light, the Bengaluru Police has also taken the same consideration for any coherence to the alleged assassination of Gauri Lankesh.

Also Read: EXOTIC AND EXPENSIVE GIFTS RECEIVED BY MINISTERS AND GOVT OFFICIALS

As of now, the family of the deceased, headed by brother Indrajit Lankesh, have demanded a CBI probe to cite lack of confidence in Karnataka state-run SIT which has failed to bring justice to all other similar cases including that of MM Kalburgi. Indrajit has personally come in very strongly in front of the camera to demand a CBI probe. However, whether a CBI probe would be ordered or this will follow a series of disappointments for the bereaved family, is yet to be seen.

Kanhaiya Kumar on  her murder conclusion of Gaur Lankesh Timeline

In his letter to the Times of India, Gauri’s ex-husband has also claimed that [amazon_textlink asin=’8193237277′ text=’Kanhaiya Kumar’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’wwwrtiwalain-21′ marketplace=’IN’ link_id=’0f79ddd2-9659-11e7-afa3-d56b78601d24′] was like a son to her. And that she had told him so during their telephonic conversation. Confirming a great rapport with the late journalist, ex-JNU Student Union President, Kanhaiya Kumar said she had told him that hate emails and threat calls were a regular now. But that never hindered her from standing out and loud for her values and beliefs.

“Social media is full of people abusing her. It is so disheartening. This shows that there is no value for life. She got so many Maoists to return to a normal life and this is what she gets in return.”

                                                                                                                    – Kanhaiya Kumar, Former President, JNUSU

With this report, we end our investigation on the Gauri Lankesh Murder timeline. We’ll also update our readers on the latest developments.

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