A prosecution witness within the Gauri Lankesh homicide trial who had given detailed statements to a Justice of the Peace about his participation in a number of arms coaching camps performed by a right-wing Hindutva syndicate implicated within the crime turned hostile on Wednesday.
The 37-year-old prosecution witness, who’s concerned in grassroot politics in Karnataka’s Belagavi area, was declared hostile by the state particular public prosecutor after he denied all of the statements he had made in September 2018 underneath part 164 of the Code of Felony Process.
The witness, who had recognized a number of folks arrested for the September 5, 2017, homicide of the journalist as members within the coaching camps, additionally rejected the take a look at identification parade he had participated in on the Bengaluru jail in November 2018 and claimed that he had recognized the accused individuals underneath police duress, prosecution sources mentioned.
Throughout a cross-examination within the court docket after being declared hostile by the prosecution, the witness denied the cost that he was deviating from his earlier statements as a result of stress from the accused–most of whom have been granted bail final 12 months.
A chargesheet filed by a Particular Investigation Crew of the Karnataka police, which investigated the taking pictures of the 55-year-old journalist exterior her dwelling in Bengaluru, has statements by a number of accused folks and witnesses concerning coaching camps the place teaching was additionally offered in using arms and explosives.
The SIT has arrested 17 folks linked to varied fringe Hindutva teams for the homicide of Gauri Lankesh, which was allegedly coordinated by folks previously related to the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, a Sanatan Sanstha affiliate, and who created against the law syndicate to focus on critics of Hindutva politics. The SIT filed a chargesheet within the case on November 23, 2018.
Statements concerning the coaching camps recorded within the chargesheet have been given by as many as three folks arrested within the case and 4 witnesses who have been a part of the camps.
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Earlier statements about arms coaching, members and trainers
The witness who was declared hostile on Wednesday said earlier than a Justice of the Peace in 2018 about being approached by two individuals—together with Amol Kale, 38, a former HJS convenor and alleged chief coordinator of the right-wing crime syndicate–for participation within the coaching camps and recruitment of like-minded youths in Belagavi.
When summoned to the witness field within the trial, the 37-year-old witness denied figuring out Kale and others who have been a part of the syndicate’s actions from 2011 to 2017. He denied receiving directions to determine critics of Hindutva and being skilled in using weapons and explosives at a number of areas–together with at two camps held in Maharashtra’s Jalna and close to Dharmasthala in Karnataka in 2015.
The witness additionally denied recruiting and taking three folks from Belagavi for a coaching camp in Jalna round January 2015, the place a Belagavi man accused within the August 30, 2015, homicide of the Kannada scholar Prof M M Kalburgi in Dharwad was additionally allegedly a participant.
The witness had additionally talked about the presence of as many as 4 exterior trainers at a number of the camps who have been specialists in using explosives and subversion techniques. The exterior trainers have been solely recognized as Bade Mahatmaji, Chote Mahatmaji or Bade Babaji and Bhai Sab and their actual identities weren’t revealed, he said in 2018.
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“The members of this crime syndicate have been repeatedly supplied with numerous sorts of coaching within the making and utilization of weapons and explosives at many locations. Native members of the syndicate took up the accountability of organising these coaching camps on the completely different areas,” the SIT said in its chargesheet.
Amongst these accused within the Gauri Lankesh homicide and different circumstances who allegedly attended the coaching camps are Amit Degwekar, Virendra Tawade, Sharad Kalaskar, Shrikant Pangarkar, Vasudev Suryavanshi, Ganesh Miskin, Amit Baddi, Bharat Kurne, Sachin Andhure, and Praveen Chatur.
Sharad Kalaskar was convicted final 12 months within the homicide of the Maharashtra rationalist Narendra Dabholkar in Pune in 2013. He offered particulars of the coaching camps he attended to the CBI, which investigated the Dabholkar homicide case.
Third prosecution witness to show hostile
The witness who turned hostile this week is the third prosecution witness to show hostile among the many 183 prosecution witnesses introduced in court docket until Could 28 within the trial that started on July 4, 2022. Over 400 witnesses have been recognized within the case.
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In August 2023, a prosecution witness from Udupi who was additionally recognized among the many folks recruited by the right-wing Hindutva syndicate for extremist actions denied attending conferences and a coaching camp of the group.
The prosecution witness had earlier given a press release to a Justice of the Peace about going to Pune for arms coaching on the occasion of Praveen Kumar alias Sujit Kumar, an arrested recruiter for the right-wing extremist outfit linked to the murders of Gauri Lankesh and three others.
Final 12 months, a prosecution witness linked to the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti who’s alleged to have loaned his Splendor motorbike to an accused particular person, H L Suresh, to facilitate the recce of the house of the journalist in Bengaluru turned hostile. The witness denied affiliation with the HJS and possession of the bike that was nonetheless registered in his mom’s identify.
Gauri Lankesh was killed after 4 bullets have been fired at her exterior her dwelling by a person now recognized by the SIT as Parashuram Waghmore, a former activist of the right-wing Sri Rama Sena outfit.
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A forensic evaluation of the 4 empty cartridges and the 4 bullets fired to kill Lankesh confirmed that the markings on the bullets and cartridges have been the identical as markings discovered on bullets and cartridges recovered from the location of the killing of Kannada scholar and researcher M M Kalburgi within the northern Karnataka city of Dharwad on August 30, 2015.
Findings from the comparability of ballistic proof from the Lankesh and Kalburgi circumstances additionally revealed that the 7.65 mm country-made gun used within the two murders in Karnataka had additionally been used within the taking pictures of the Leftist thinker Govind Pansare, 81, in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur on February 16, 2015.
The ballistic proof additionally indicated that one of many two weapons used within the Pansare homicide was used to kill the rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, 69, in Pune on August 20, 2013.
The Karnataka SIT has named 17 folks from right-wing Hindutva fringe outfits for the conspiracy and homicide of Gauri Lankesh. The accused have been charged for homicide and involvement in an organised crime exercise underneath the Karnataka Management of Organised Crime Act (KCOCA) 2000.
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“The members of this organisation focused individuals whom they recognized to be inimical to their perception and beliefs. The members strictly adopted the rules and ideas talked about in ‘Kshatra Dharma Sadhana’, a guide revealed by Sanatan Sanstha,” the SIT mentioned after it filed a 9,235-page chargesheet on November 23, 2018.