Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru

Mangaluru, Mar 4: A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has arrived Mangaluru to verify the background of Naveen Kumar, the person arrested in the murder of Gauri Lankesh case.

Naveen is believed to have spent many years in Mangaluru and the SIT hopes to get valuable leads. Meanwhile, another team has left to a neighbouring state as supposedly Naveen had convinced four men to train in using firearms as his religious mentor from a neighbouring state had sought their help in fighting a battle.

Naveen, from Maddur in Mandya district, was arrested by the Central Crime Branch sleuths on February 18 from the Kempegowda Bus in Bengaluru. He had with him over 15 rounds of cartridges of .32 calibre. He was taken into custody for questioning and later a case was filed with the jurisdictional Upparpet police under Sections 3 and 25 of the Arms Act.

On Friday, SIT officials took him into custody for seven days to ascertain his possible role in the Gauri murder case.

Some sources have told Times of India, that Naveen has made a confession and the same is submitted in a sealed envelope to the court. The details of the confession are not revealed.

Meanwhile, villagers in and around Kollegal and Chamarajanagar identified Naveen as a ‘Mangaluru man’ from photographs shown to them by investigators and said that four men accompanied him last year. It is believed that the firearm training took place around the forests surrounding Kollegal.

The villagers told SIT investigators that Naveen and the other four travelled in Maruti Omni and survived eating snacks from petty shops. The villagers recollected that the gang was generous in tipping shopkeepers and one said that they left Rs 200 as tip for a bill of Rs 300.

Sources said the SIT investigators have credible information about the involvement of Naveen and the other four in Gauri’s murder.

Gauri Lankesh was murdered on September 5, 2017, by unknown assailants outside her Rajarajeshwari Nagar residence. The SIT that has been probing the case for nearly six months.

A reward of Rs 10 lac had also been announced for leads that lead to the arrest of the murderers. According to reports, the police have investigated over 200 people in this case so far.