A 37-year-old man, who was taken into custody earlier this month for possessing illegal ammunition, has now been arrested in connection with the murder of Kannada tabloid Editor Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru on the night of 5 September 2017.
According to media reports, Naveen Kumar has links with right-wing groups. Kumar hails from Birur town in Chikkamagaluru district, about 250km west from Bengaluru. He is accused of taking the killer on his motorcycle to Gauri Lankesh’s house on 5 September, the day of the assassination.
The police, reportedly, are seeking permission to conduct a lie detector test on him.
On 3 March, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) had taken Naveen Kumar into custody for questioning.
The man was picked up by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) from a bus station in Bengaluru on 19 February. He remained in SIT custody for eight days for interrogation.
Gauri Lankesh, the editor of ‘Lankesh Patrike’, who was known for her firebrand journalism, was shot dead point blank by two assailants as she returned home from work around 8 pm on the night of September 5, 2017.
The murder was caught on CCTV cameras installed outside her house.