Gauri Lankesh murder accused arrested from Jharkhand’s Dhanbad

Lankesh, journalist, was shot dead on September 5, 2017 outside her house by a member of a gang that apparently planned to kill her after being inspired by a book brought out by right-wing group Sanatan Sanstha.

A special investigation team of Bengaluru Police probing the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh arrested one of the accused late on Thursday from Jharkhand’s Dhanbad district, officials said.

The SIT had found that Lankesh was killed after a conspiracy was hatched by members of a right-wing group.(Arijit Sen/Hindustan Times)

Rushikesh Devrikar alias Rajesh alias Murli alias Shiva was living in Katras for the past several months as a caretaker of a building owned by a renowned businessman from the same locality after changing his name.

“The Bangalore police SIT would today (Friday) produce him in the court of the chief judicial magistrate for securing transit remand and take him to Bangalore,” Dhanbad’s senior superintendent of police (SSP) Kishore Kaushal said.

Devrikar was living near Rajgadhia Market in Katras from where he was picked up by the team after tracking his movement for more than five days, the senior police official said.

“The SIT zeroed in on him on the basis of the mobile location as Devrikar was using different telephones. Police also searched his room and have found books on Sanatan Dharma,” Kaushal said.

Businessman Pradeep Khemna said Devrikar was given the job on the recommendation of a friend from Goa.

“I was not aware of his criminal antecedents,” Khemna said.

Gauri Lankesh was shot dead on September 5, 2017, outside her house in Bengaluru.

The SIT has arrested 17 people for their alleged involvement in the murder so far and said members of the Sanathan Santha were behind her killing.

Sanathan Santha has denied SIT’s charges about its involvement in the murder.