BENGALURU: A day after unidentified assailants gunned down journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh outside her house, Bengaluru police said they were yet to make any major breakthrough in the case. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said a special investigation team would be set up to probe the murder which he described as an “organised crime”.
Police Commissioner T Suneel Kumar said they have retrieved footage from two CCTV cameras outside the victim's house. He said, “The footage is not very clear. But it shows a man wearing a black helmet following Gauri after she gets down from her car and entering the compound and opening fire at her. We are collecting footage from all the CCTV cameras along the stretch between Basavanagudi, from where Gauri left, and Rajarajeshwari Nagar, before she was shot dead.”
Gauri had two CCTV cameras installed outside her house less than a month ago. Footage from the cameras showed her stopping the car in front of the big gate of her house, sit for a few minutes in the seat and browse through her phone, keeping her car engine and headlights on with music playing. She later got down and entered the premises through a small gate right next to the big one. When she walked to the big gate and opened the latch, the assailant appeared, entered the small gate and fired at her. The first bullet entered her rib and she tried to run. The attacker ran behind her and shot at least four more rounds at her, before they fled.
Sources said, “From what we gather, soon after bullets were fired, a single headlight beam was turned on and its light fell on Gauri's car. The next second, the vehicle took a turn and sped away. Its reflection on the car reveals it was a two-wheeler. Based on these facts, we suspect the assailant used a two-wheeler as his getaway vehicle. The assailant is a man of medium height.” Gauri's younger brother Indrajit Lankesh said there were three bullets in Gauri's body. “Two were found in the lungs, while the third one in the heart. The one which hit the heart proved fatal.”
