New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday urged the Karnataka government to probe the murder of senior Kannada journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh "seriously, arrest her killers and punish them".

"We urge the Karnataka government to probe the murder of well known journalist Gauri Lankesh with full seriousness, take the case to its conclusion, arrest the killers and punish them," senior BJP leader and Union Minister Ananth Kumar said at the party headquarters here.

Lankesh was shot dead by unidentified assailants at her residence in Bengaluru on Tuesday. In her 50s, she was the editor of popular Kannada tabloid "Lankesh Patrike" besides owning some other publications.

In November 2016, she was sentenced to six months in jail after a defamation case was filed against her for a report against BJP leaders.

The Minister also blamed Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his government for not taking previous sensitive criminal cases seriously.

"Siddaramaiah government failed in expediting the investigation of previous sensitive criminal cases as well as reaching the conclusion during inquiry as expected."

Citing the Supreme Court's Tuesday order, Kumar said the court ordered the Karnataka government to hand over the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the death of Deputy Superintendent of Police M.K. Ganapathy, who was found dead in a lodge at Madikeri in Bengaluru last year.

"Apart from handing over Ganapathy's case to CBI, the court commented on the investigation process of state government. It also said that Karnataka government's investigation was not reliable," Kumar said, citing the apex court order.

Ganapathy was found dead hours after he gave an interview to a television channel accusing Bengaluru Development Minister K.J. George and senior officers A.M. Prasad and Pranab Mohanty of harassment.