5 saffron extremists including a Mangalurean are key suspects in Gauri Lankesh murder

Bengaluru, Oct 6: As many as five saffron extremists linked to the Sanatan Sanstha, a hardline Hindutva outfit, have emerged as key suspects in the coldblooded murder of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh.

The key suspects have been identified as Jayaprakash alias Anna (45), from Mangaluru; Praveen Limkar (34), from Kolhapur; Sarang Akolkar (38), from Pune; Rudra Patil (37), from Sangli and Vinay Pawar (32), from Satara. All of them are absconding.

According to sources, four of them even have Interpol red-corner notices against their names for their alleged involvement in the 2009 Margao bomb blast where two Sanatan Sanstha men were killed while transporting an IED that was to be planted at a Diwali program in Madgaon.

Patil, Akolkar and Pawar had emerged as suspects also during the CBI investigation into the murder of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar in August 2013, in the probe into the killing of leftist thinker and rationalist Govind Pansare in February 2015 and also in the investigation into the murder of Kannada scholar M M Kalburgi in August 2015, a national daily reported.

Akolkar and Patil along with Limkar and Anna are also suspected to be key players in the October 2009 Margao bomb blast when two members of Sanatan Sanstha were killed while transporting an IED that was to be planted at a Diwali programme in the area.

The special investigation team (SIT) of the Karnataka police, which is probing into the Gauri murder has already found out the striking similarities in the murders of Gauri, Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and MM Kalburgi.

Kalburgi was killed at 8:40 am when two men arrived at his house on a motorcycle, knocked on his door and shot him when he opened it. This is very similar to what happened to Gauri, though her murder was at night. A 7.65 mm countrymade pistol was used for both murders, as well as the murders of Dabholkar (killed in Kolhapur, Maharashtra) and Pansare (killed in Pune).