BENGALURU: Filmmaker Kavitha Lankesh told a city court on Monday that a week before the murder of her sister, journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh, the latter told her and their mother that “some men were suspiciously loitering near her house”.
Deposing before judge CM Joshi of the special court for Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act cases, Kavitha said, “We suggested that she (Gauri) should file a police complaint immediately but she said she can do it later.”
“I was returning home from a club when my mother called saying something was wrong with Gauri as she has fallen outside the house and I should go there immediately. When I reached Gauri’s home in RR Nagar, she was lying dead in a pool of blood and there were 2-3 cartridges near her body. Then, I filed a police complaint against unknown assailants,” Kavitha said, while being examined by special prosecutor S Balan.
Cross-examined later by counsel for the accused, Kavitha said there were some differences in their family but she was not fully aware of them. She was replying to questions about an alleged rift in the family over properties left behind by her late father P Lankesh.
She also said she was unaware of the two tweets allegedly posted by Gauri in the wee hours of September 5, 2017, indicating that “she had a fight with someone close to her and people should not believe false versions of news that are spread”.
Reply to the accused counsel’s contention that Gauri had Naxalite links, Kavitha said she was not aware of it. However, counsel produced Kavitha’s own statements made to police, wherein she had stated that Gauri had connections with some Naxalite leaders.
Earlier, D Anil Kumar, 29, a mobile service centre owner from Srirangapatna, and an RSS worker, explained to the court that on receiving directions from accused KT Naveen from Maddur, he purchased an airgun with pellets from Mysuru to practise ‘target shooting’. Naveen was the first accused to be arrested in the case.
