The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Gauri Lankesh murder case claims to be closer to solving the puzzle ¡ª tracing the gun used and nabbing the rider who ferried the shooter.
A senior police officer told STOI: ¡°We¡¯ve got the shooter and all others involved in the plot. We¡¯re working on identifying the man who brought shooter Parashuram Waghmore to Gauri¡¯s house and took him back after the killing. We don¡¯t know what the assailants have done with the murder weapon.¡±
The SIT hit a roadblock after Waghmore claimed he had no information about the man who handled the logistics. He reportedly told sleuths: ¡°He was tall and dark.
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I hadn¡¯t seen him before. I met him for the first time at a rented house in Seegehalli on September 3. The next meeting was when he brought me on a bike to Gauri¡¯s house.¡±?
Sleuths are also searching for another man who had roped in Waghmore to embark on a mission to save the Hindu religion by killing those allegedly tarnishing it. ¡°I was told I wouldn¡¯t be caught. I laughed when KT Naveen Kumar was nabbed because I thought I had escaped.
When Sujith Kumar was nabbed, I got scared. I don¡¯t know what my parents are doing, my mother in particular. Her health is not so good,¡± he told interrogators.
Sources said: ¡°He¡¯s not as tough as we expected. When our team picked him up, he told them he knew they¡¯d come one day. Through the journey to Bengaluru, he confessed to have shot Gauri.¡±
The SIT has decided to take Waghmore to places in Belagavi where he reportedly underwent weapons training. Sources said the plan to kill Gauri was hatched in Belagavi and the accused made several calls from phone booths. Waghmore is suspected to have trained using an air gun in the Khanapur forest region.