Filmmaker and journalist Kavitha Lankesh during a trial in the murder case of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh told a Bengaluru court on Monday that her slain sister was targeted by right-wing and casteist groups for her writings and speeches against Hindutva, the Indian Express reported.
55-year-old Lankesh was shot dead outside her home in Bengaluru on September 5, 2017.
Younger sister of Lankesh, Kavitha, who had filed the murder complaint is designated as the first court witness in the case and was the second person to provide evidence from the witness box on Monday.
On Monday, defence lawyers questioned Kavitha regarding her statements in 2017 about her suspicion of right-wing groups being involved in Gauri’s murder. She told the court that she connected these groups based on the remarks made on social media about her sister’s activism.
After the murder, the defence advocates claimed that a deliberate effort was made soon to direct the probe towards the involvement of right-wing organisations.
Meanwhile, counsels for the 17 arrested accused during the course of the cross-examination of Kavitha, suggested that personal rivalries of Lankesh as well as differences within the family or due to her association with radical Left-wing activists, could be a reason for her murder.
Monday’s murder trial began with recording statements of another witness (court witness number 4), who had met several of the accused in meetings that were held two months after the murder to allegedly plot another killing.
The 18 accused of which 17 have been arrested are linked to a secretive group that was targeting people declared to be “anti-Hindu”, as per the codes of the group, according to the police.
(Inputs from Indian Express)
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Rabia Shireen is a Staff Reporter at The Cognate.
