More than a month investigating the case and tackling criticism for slow investigation, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) released the sketches of two suspects in the Gauri Lankesh murder case, last week.
While it was a notable development in the investigation, it was not a breakthrough; the SIT does not have any details of the killers or their affiliation. The plea for information from the public shows just how desperate the SIT is, which hasn’t managed to gather any actionable evidence or leads in the case.
BK Singh, chief of the SIT, called the sketches “an approximation rather than a photograph.” The fact that two different sketches of one suspect was released shows the ambiguity and lack of details about the features of the killers. This reduces the chances of any breakthrough from the sketches.
Apart from these sketches, the SIT has not made progress in any other angle of the investigation, which shows that the investigation is back to square one.
The Eyewitnesses
During the first month of investigation, SIT had maintained that there were no eyewitnesses in the murder. However, while releasing the sketches of the suspects, Singh said that sketches were made based on information from CCTV cameras and eyewitnesses.
So, who are these eyewitnesses?
Senior SIT officers said there were no eyewitnesses to the murder. The eyewitnesses were those who have seen the face of the two suspects that the SIT zeroed down from the CCTV footage.
After zeroing in on the man who conducted the recce and the man who killed Lankesh in the large cache of CCTV footage, SIT asked around if anyone in the adjacent areas had people with similar features. Based on those who came forward, the sketches were made.
The Sketches and Cartridges
According to senior officers, the two promising evidences in the case are the sketches and cartridges recovered from the crime scene. As the killers are suspected to have remained in Bengaluru for over seven days, the SIT hopes citizens will be able to provide information about the killers. However, response since the release of the footage has not been promising.
The SIT is also waiting for the cartridges from the Kalburgi murder case to ascertain whether the weapons used in the two cases were similar. However, cartridges are yet to arrive from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Without a positive match on the weapon, linking the murder to the three others in Maharashtra and Karnataka will have no legal basis.
So, to put it briefly, no progress has been made on the most promising angles of the case.
Not The First Investigation Based on Sketch
While the SIT is hoping to get a lead from the sketches they released, in the Kalburgi murder case, an investigation based on similar sketches of suspects drawn with inputs of eye witnesses had taken them to a dead end. In 2015, using the accounts of the eyewitnesses in the Kalburgi murder, the CID created sketches of two suspects.
One of the sketches had an uncanny resemblance to Rudra Patil, a volunteer with a right-wing organisation. The CID, who were already investigating right-wing involvement in the case, soon focused their investigation on Patil; however, he has remained elusive, despite a red-corner notice issued against him.
No Enhanced Photograph
Two TV channels on Tuesday, 17 October, claimed the SIT obtained a picture of the killer using image enhancement. But, senior SIT denied such development.
MN Anucheth, investigation officer, said that the photo circulated on TV channels was not released by the SIT. Although CCTV footage of the suspected killer is available with the SIT, they have not been able to extract a clear image from the footage
Senior SIT officers admit that more than a month after investigation, apart from ruling out some motives in the murder, no progress has been made by the SIT.
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