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Murder conspiracy theories: Who killed Gauri Lankesh?

  • Journalist, writer Gauri Lankesh was murdered in front of her Rajarajeshwari Nagar house at  7.30 PM on Tuesday
  • There are several theories doing the round
  • The involvement of extremist elements either from right or left wing has not been ruled out.
  • Police is also trying to find out if family disputes led to the murder
Murder conspiracy theories Who killed Gauri Lankesh Journalist shot dead

In a shocking development journalist, writer Gauri Lankesh was murdered in front of her Rajarajeshwari Nagar house at  7.30 PM on Tuesday. Being a strong advocate of human rights and anti fundamental thoughts and ideologies, she had received many threat calls.

Gauri Lankesh is the daughter of Lankesh who was a strong critic of anti-social elements. Gauri was always drawn towards her father's ideologies, but as the time passed, she grew as a strong left sympathiser but was not in support of extremists. She was outrighly opposing the right wing fundamentalism, in some cases was even against Dalits who were on a cow killing spree. Thus, she had her own identity, and her strong views were never compromised for anything.

In fact, a month ago she had received a threat call, where the caller had said, "We will not leave you, will kill you for sure," said her friend and politician BT Lalitha Naik. Gauri Lankesh had not filed a case against them because threats were a common thing to her and after the way, MM Kalburgi's case was handled, she was not sure of police really helping her out.

As the persons who killed her are not identified yet, these conspiracy theories are doing rounds.

Similarity to Kalburgi's murder

There are speculations that alleged right-wing extremists might be behind the murder. There is a similarity in murder between MM Kalaburagi and Gauri Lankesh who were known as anti-Hindutva were shot dead just outside their houses. Links to right-wing fundamentalists was drawn in the case of Kalaburagi. In the same way, it is said that the similar method to kill Gauri also indicates that there is some connection in the both their murders.

Role of extreme right-wing fundamentalists?

She has always opposed the extremism. “She has faced a lot of threats. If you see her social media profile, there are constant threats from right wing forces whom she strongly opposed all her life. She was reluctant and did not care too much for her personal safety. There were also some incidents of theft at home a while ago, so we forced her to set up some security cameras, and we are hoping that it will yield some results because they were on when the incident occurred,’’ a journalist and friend of Gauri had told the Indian Express. 

Her efforts in getting naxals into the mainstream

Recently, she had brought Naxals Sirimane Nagaraj and Noor Sridhar to the mainstream. She was soft towards Naxal ideas but not towards the extreme ways they carried it out. This was one of her last tweets which hints at the fact that likeminded people were fighting over trivial issues when they have the same rivals. Did the extreme naxalites kill her?

 

BJP bike rally?

There were speculations that the timing chosen to kill Gauri might give some hint. BJP had planned a bike rally and some people even said that the assailants after killing could escape easily as many people from various parts of the state had come to take part in the rally. So suspecting any new face or faces is also difficult as there will be hundreds of new faces which entered and left Bengaluru on Tuesday.

Cases filed on Gauri?

Two defamation cases were filed on journalist Gauri Lankesh. One in 2008 when Gauri had written a report against BJP MP Prahlad Joshi and BJP leader Umesh Dushi. They had individually filed defamation cases objecting to a report Gauri in her periodical on January 23, 2008. As she could not produce proof for the allegations made, the court had sentenced Gauri to six months imprisonment with Rs 10,000 fine but had granted her a bail. She had told that she would appeal against this in the High Court. This may seem a distant reason, but did political rivalry play any role in Gauri's murder? Only the investigation can give the answers.

Family dispute?

Gauri and her brother Indrajit Lankesh had serious differences in the matter of taking the ownership of the tabloid 'Lankesh Patrike' run by their father, after his death. It is also said that at one point Indrajith had threatened her with a pistol. But later, both parted ways, and Indrajit continued to run Lankesh Patrike whereas Gauri started Gauri Lankesh Pankesh.

However, Indrajit has expressed shock over the death of his sister and has demanded a CBI probe in the matter. He is also likely to conduct her final rites. Police are trying to inquire into the family dispute angle too. 

But what people have failed to understand is that whatever her ideologies what she ultimately wanted was peace.

 

 

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