Gauri Lankesh murder: Killer sprayed bullets till she died

BENGALURU: A day after unidentified assailants gunned down journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh outside her Rajarajeshwari Nagar house, the city police on Wednesday said they have not made any major breakthrough in the murder.
Contrary to their earlier claims that three men attacked her, police said there was no clarity on the total number of people involved. They said the only confirmation they had was that one of the assailants shot at Gauri, and she died.
Infographic: Journalists who have been killed with impunity
Police commissioner T Suneel Kumar said they have retrieved footage from two CCTV cameras installed outside Gauri's house.“Footage from the CCTV cameras are not very clear.But it shows a man wearing a black helmet following Gauri after she gets down from her car and entering the compound and opening fire at her. We are collecting footage from all the CCTV cameras along the stretch between Basavana gudi, from where Gowri left, and Rajarajeshwari Nagar, before she was shot dead,“ he said.

Gauri had got two CCTV cameras installed outside her house only 15 days ago. Describing the contents of the CCTV footages, a senior police officer said Gauri was first seen stopping the car in front of the big gate of her house. She sits for a few minutes in the seat and browses through her mobile phone.
“Keeping the car engine and headlights on with music playing, Gauri gets down and enters the compound using the small gate next to the big one. Then she walks towards the big gate and opens the latch. The assailant appears at this moment and is seen entering the small gate and firing at her.This bullet enters Gauri's rib and she tries to run. The assailant runs behind her and shoots at least four rounds at her and flees,“ police sources said.
“What we gathered was, soon after bullets were fired, a single headlight beam is turned on and its light falls on Gauri's car. The next second, the vehicle takes a turn, speeds away and its reflection on the car tells it is a two wheeler. Based on these facts, we suspect that the assailant used a two-wheeler as his getaway vehicle. The physical appearance of the assailant tells that he is a man of medium height and aged between 35-40,“ they added.
Quoting from the post-mortem report, Indrajit Lankesh, younger brother of Gauri, said there were three bullets in Gauri's body. “Two were found in the lungs, while the third one in the heart. The one which hit the heart proved fatal,“ he said.