(Image: Deeksha Malhotra/ The Quint)

By ANANTH SHREYAS / The Quint

It has been over five years since Gauri Lankesh, a journalist and editor of Gauri Lankesh Patrike was shot dead outside of her house in Bengaluru’s Rajarajeshwari Nagar. The special court for Karnataka Control of Organised Crimes Act, (KCOCA) began its trial on 5 July, 2022 and has since then heard the matter thrice.

As of now, the hearing is adjourned for 10 October 2022 as per the ground rules set by the special judge Chandrashekhar Mrutyunjaya Joshi, who said that the court would hear the matter every second week of the month for five days.

In two separate interactions with The Quint, the prosecution and the sources in the police department revealed how Gauri Lankesh’s killing was the result of a series of conspiracies and the common ideological factors that bound all the accused, who hatched and executed the murder of 5 September, 2017, together.

WHAT IS THE IDEOLOGY AND LITERATURE THAT INFLUENCED ‘KILLERS’ OF GAURI LANKESH?

The SIT which investigated Gauri Lankesh’s murder has filed a chargesheet which is over 9,000 pages and 18 people have been named in it.

According to the police, the conspiracy to kill Gauri Lankesh was part of the larger act of trying to eliminate anyone who is against the ‘Hindu Dharma.’

One of the main accused in the case, Amol Kale, a radicalised youth from Maharashtra, convinced and brainwashed Parshuram Waghmare, an alleged member of Sri Ram Sene to carry out the killing of Gauri Lankesh.

Sources in police department told The Quint that the Amol Kale was heavily influenced by a book called ‘Kshaatra Dharma Sadhana’ – written by Jayant Balaji Athavale in 1995.

Jayant Balaji Athavale , the founder of Sanathan Sanstha, a radical right-wing Hindutva organisation, was a consultant psychiatrist and a hypnotherapist. In his controversial book, Athavale speaks about ‘rastradrohis’ (anti-nationals) and dharmadrohis (traitors and people opposed to the Hindu Dharma).

The book grades ‘dharmadrohis’ based on their activities and terms atheists to be the worst form of traitors, who must to be eliminated.
“Amol Kale was highly influenced by this radical propaganda book and was instrumental in also brainwashing Parashuram Waghmare. The group of four to five people met actively and had already prepared a list of people whom they wished to eliminate.”
MN Anucheth, Investigating Officer (SIT), Gauri Lankesh Case

The SIT has also asserted that the killing of Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, and MM Kalburgi were interlinked and that the same weapon was used in all the murders. According to the police, this fact has also been proven based on the forensic ballistic reports.

However, the police have deliberately focused on the ‘intent of crime,’ instead of focusing on the motive to solve the crime. They told The Quint that they have not interlinked it with other killings that took place Pune, Mumbai, and Dharwad as it would further complicate the case.

Speaking to The Quint a source in the SIT said, “The killing is purely ideological in nature. As per the book and literature we found in the possession of the accused Parashuram Waghmare, the main targets of the group were people within the Hindu community, but who were critical of its radical forms. When we see the activities of all four victims, we realised that they were against organised religion and Hindutva extremism.”
“The literature of Hindu Janajagruti Samiti and Sanathan Sanstha dictates that the enemy of Hindu dharma is an atheist, who is born in a Hindu household.”
SIT Source

As per the chargesheet filed by the SIT, the conspiracy to kill Gauri Lankesh was initiated in 2016, by Amol Kale in Belagavi, who brought together people with extremist Hindutva ideological leanings under one roof.

The group which had already conspired and carried out the killing of Dabholkar, were trained to use guns and make country bombs. Another radicalised youth Parashuram Waghmare was also introduced to the group two months before the assassination of Gauri Lankesh, and was tasked with carrying out the shooting of the journalist.

Another important discovery made by the SIT was finding a diary in possession of Amol Kale. The diary listed a total of 36 rational and progressive thinkers whom the group wished to eliminate.

Some of the prominent names were: writer Baragur Ramachandrappa, poet Chennaveera Kanavi, Dalit author Banajagere Jayaprakash, late playwright Girish Karnad, former IAS officer SM Jamdar, rationalist Narendra Nayak and others – all of whom were opposed to fundamental ideas of Hindutva.

This story was originally published in thequint.com . Read the full story here