Forensic report reveals Gauri Lankesh, MM Kalburgi were killed with same gun

Gauri Lankesh and M M Kalburgi

The same gun was used to kill journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh and rationalist M M Kalburgi in Karnataka, the state forensic science laboratory has confirmed in a report, sources in the SIT said.

The forensic report submitted to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the killing of Lankesh, is a part of the first chargesheet filed recently by it naming K T Naveen Kumar as an accused. This is the first official confirmation of the link between the two killings, which happened after a gap of two years of each other.

Activists take part in a protest rally against the killing of journalist Gauri Lankesh at the India Gate memorial, on Sept 6, 2017. File Pic/AFP

Kalburgi, 77, was shot dead in his house on August 30, 2015, in Dharwad, and 55-year old Lankesh on September 5, 2017. The SIT members had earlier talked about the same-gun theory but for the first time it has come out in the open to show that Kalburgi's murder was the handiwork of the same gang.

30 Aug
Day in the year 2015 Kalburgi was shot dead in his house

05 Sept
Day in 2017 Lankesh was shot dead in front of her house