Gauri killing: No headway after questioning over 100 people; SIT now grills Kunigal Giri

News Network
September 15, 2017

Bengaluru, Sept 15: Further intensifying the probe into the murder of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) has commenced interrogation of rowdy sheeter Kunigal Giri and six of his associates, currently in judicial custody, to see if they have information on key arms smugglers in the city.

More than 100 persons from across the State have been questioned by the police but there has been no breakthrough.

The probe team is aggressively working on identifying all individuals in the city and state who are in possession with country-made pistols chambered with a 7.65 mm bore.

The team has listed out people who are involved in illegal arms trade and will question them to ascertain how many such pistols have been sold and are in use illegally in the city and its outskirts.

Kunigal Giri (35), a native of Kunigal, has several aliases such as Girish, Modur Giri, Ashwath and Prashanth Raja. He is involved in nearly 70 cases in Bengaluru, including 30 cases of dacoities and robberies, and in most of his heists, he brandished pistols and threatened his victims.

He is also involved in numerous such cases in Mangaluru, Belagavi, Hassan, Tumakuru, Ballari and Bengaluru Rural. The CCB police had earlier arrested Giri in 2008 after booking him in 40 cases of dacoities and robberies.

A police team has also gone to Vijayapura jail to question an illegal arms dealer who had reportedly sold over two dozen pistols in Bengaluru after procuring it from his source in Bihar.

The police, over a period of time, had recovered 15 pistols out of the 26 accounted for according to the dealer’s claims, but the police could not trace 11 pistols.

One of the traced pistols was used in APMC president Kadabagere Srinivas’ shooting a few months ago in Yelahanka, the police said. The police said Gauri’s assailants could have procured the pistol from these rowdies.

A majority of rowdies, including those in the underworld, use 7.65 mm pistols in the state as ammunition is available easily in the market. Police records state that history-sheeters like Ravi Pujari, Hebbet Manja and their associates have been using these pistols for a long time. Central Crime Branch police have seized 10 such guns from Hebbet Manja and his associates.

Progress so far

SIT has learnt there are no professional shooters lodged in any of the jails in the state.

Data of around 10 lakh phone lines that were active, hours before Gauri’s murder, have been collected by SIT from mobile towers of Basavanagudi and Rajarajeshwari Nagar.

SIT has learnt calls were even made to Maharashtra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

Around 32 local residents have spoken over phone to people out of the state.

Of these, two were professors and the rest were all private company employees.

The SIT team also visited lodges in the city to collect names of the visitors who booked rooms before September 5 and vacated them on that day.

A mobile phone was recovered from near Gauri’s house which has been handed over to the FSL who are yet to examine it.

Scotland Yard officials join probe

Meanwhile, two senior officials from Scotland Yard have come to help the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing Gauri Lankesh’s murder on Wednesday.

The two, said to be experts in technical investigation, have been apprised of all information, developments and investigation progress till date, regarding the case.

The CID had sought the help of Scotland Yard in Prof Kalburgi’s murder case as well, and presume they would be of help in this case too, a senior police officer said.

Comments

Danish
 - 
Friday, 15 Sep 2017

First and foremost failure is not given police protection to Gauri Lankesh. Now police searching in dark and heading nowhere. they dont know which way they have to go to solve the issue.. Total failure siddu

Hari
 - 
Friday, 15 Sep 2017

Instead of blaming siddaramaiah govt, check what nda did. They are the rrot reason for killing and still keeping silence

Mohan
 - 
Friday, 15 Sep 2017

Its a big shame to siddu govt

Kumar
 - 
Friday, 15 Sep 2017

We have hope only in scotland yard

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News Network
March 13,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 13: Amid coronavirus outbreak, all universities, malls, and clubs will remain closed for a week in Karnataka. Karnataka CM Yediyurappa has said no one should travel unless it's an emergency. "All malls, cinema halls, pubs, wedding ceremonies and other large gatherings in the Karnataka have been banned for another one week," Chief Minister Yediyurappa said. This comes hours after the Uttar Pradesh government had decided that all schools, colleges situated in the state will be closed till 31st March 2020.

Following the decision, the Karnataka government on Friday asked doctors and other health staff to work on public holidays also till the spread of coronavirus is contained. Leaves and all week off of state health ministry workers have also been canceled. The government issued a circular stating that certain emergency measures are being taken to control the spread of coronavirus is some parts of the State.

"To manage things in a result-oriented manner, doctors, office personnel, paramedical staff and other permanent and contract employees in hospitals coming under the Health Department have been instructed to work on all public holidays." the government order read.

The decision comes after 76-year-old man in Karnataka's Kalaburagi died of coronavirus and became India's first COVID-19 victim. 46 people in Kalaburagui have been kept under coronavirus quarantine since then. Out of 46, 31 have been put under the "high risk" category. The high-risk persons were shifted to ESIC hospital. Officials said four family members of the man have displayed flu symptoms and their swab samples have been sent for testing in Bengaluru.

Earlier on Friday, an employee of Google's Bengaluru office tested positive for n-coronavirus, taking the total COVID-19 positive cases in Bengaluru to 5. India's total coronavirus positive count rose to 75. Several other states including capital Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh invoked various sections of the epidemic disease act. Meanwhile, the Indian Army has also called off all recruitment drive in wake of coronavirus outbreak.

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News Network
February 19,2020

Chikkamagaluru, Feb 19: A 31-year-old homemaker was murdered and valuables, including 100gm of gold and 2kg of silver, were reported missing from her house in Kadur town of Chikkamagaluru district late Monday evening. Her 11-month-old son, who was with her at the time of the attack, had a miraculous escape.

Police said Kavita's husband Dr Revath was away in his clinic in the town's Kadur-Birur road along with their first son, 5. Kavita, who has done MA and from Udupi, and the dentist married seven years ago.

District superintendent of police Harish Pandey has formed a special team to probe the incident that took place in Lakshmish Nagar in the town.

According to police, Kavita spoke to her husband around 6.45pm on Monday and didn't answer his subsequent calls, triggering a strong suspicion in him that something was amiss. He called his relatives living nearby to check on his wife. The relatives rushed to the house only to find the main door locked.

Since Kavita didn't answer the doorbell, they force-entered the house from the rear door and found her in a pool of blood. She was taken to a private clinic where doctors declared her brought dead.

Police said the woman was killed by a sharp weapon by slitting her throat between 6.45pm and 8.15pm. The rooms and almirahs had been found ransacked. At least 100gm gold ornaments, 2kg of silver and cash were missing from the house.

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News Network
January 7,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 7: Slogans of ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ rent the air at Town Hall on Monday evening as thousands of students, social activists, lawyers, doctors and theatrepersons among others staged a protest to denounce Sunday’s attack on the students and faculty of New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

“This is unacceptable. As students living in hostels, we are now worried about our safety,” said Prakruthi Kishore, a student of National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru.

Rishi Kumar, a student of Indian Institute of Science, pitched in. “JNU is an extremely protected university located in the national capital. It’s surprising that such an incident occurred amid tight security.”

Delhi police and the government need to wake up and take stringent action against the goons, Kumar said, adding: “Students can’t be treated like puppets. The government needs to act immediately.”

“The government is behaving shamelessly by sending goons to threaten students and professors of JNU,” said Alokanath Pandit, a lawyer.

With “Zor se bolo-azadi, tum din me maaro-azadi, hum raat me ayenge-azadi,” drowning the cacophony of traffic at the intersection, the sloganeering reached a crescendo around 6pm as the protesters raised their hands in a show of solidarity with the beleaguered JNU community.

Theatrepersons Prasanna and Arundathi Nag, farmer leader Kodihalli Chandrashekar and social activists Tara Krishnaswamy and Srinivas Alavilli were present at the protest venue. “It is not fair that educational institutions are now becoming the target. First, they hiked fees and now they are attacking students. What is the government doing,” Arundathi asked.

“JNU has always been an institution which has raised its voice against atrocities across the country as its students harbour no fear. This is an alarm bell for the country and the government to wake up. Students are the future and can’t be targeted,” she added.

Chandrashekar said Narendra Modi is unfit to be the Prime Minister as he doesn’t keep his word. “Modi said he will help farmers but has done nothing for them. He said he will provide employment to students but is now making them furious,” he said.

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