Gauri Lankesh murder case: Man who handed over gun held in Sullia

BENGALURU: A youth, suspected to have handed over the 7.65mm gun to the alleged killer of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh hours before he executed the job, was arrested on Wednesday night, sources privy to the case said.
Mohan Naik, a resident of Sampaje, near Sullia, on the Dakshina Kannada-Kodagu border, was picked up from his village by sleuths of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Gauri killing.He was produced in a Bengaluru court on Thursday evening and remanded to 14 days in SIT custody.
Mohan, the seventh person to be arrested in the case, is in his 30s and may have been the one who rode the bike with killer Parashuram Waghmore from Sindagi in Vijayapura district as pillion, sources said. Waghmore was the sixth to be held.
Investigators are sure Mohan is a vital cog in the conspiracy to kill Gauri. Mohan helped Waghmore and others involved in the killing find a home in Bengaluru before the killing.
Gauri Lankesh was gunned down by a bike-borne youth in front of her house in Rajarajeshwari Nagar on September 5, 2017.
Waghmore and Maddur resident Naveen Kumar KT, the first to be arrested, reportedly said Mohan handed over the gun to Waghmore, sources said.
CBI had picked up Mohan for Pansare’s killing
The men involved in the killing stayed in a room in Kamakshipalya and a house in Seegehalli, off Magadi Road, as they conducted recces and executed the killing. The killer weapon is yet to be traced.
CBI personnel are believed to have picked up Kale, Mohan and Veerendra Tawade in connection with the 2015 killing of CPI leader Govind Pansare in Kolhapur, Maharashtra.
While Tawade was arrested and charged, Kale and Mohan were released. Mohan is close to Amol Kale from Pune and Manohar Edave from Vijayapura district. Both Kale and Edave have been arrested.