Gauri Lankesh murder suspect arrested in Jharkhand

AURANGABAD/RANCHI: The Karnataka special investigation team (SIT) probing the murder of activist-journalist Gauri Lankesh arrested a suspect from Katras in Jharkhand's Dhanbad district on Thursday. The suspect, Rushikesh Devdikar (44), was named in an earlier chargesheet filed in the murder case. A local court in Dhanbad allowed the Karnataka team to take Devdikar on a three-day transit remand.
Devdikar lived in Aurangabad till two years ago and ran a store there. Early on Friday, the Karnataka SIT, along with the local unit of the anti-terrorism squad (ATS), went to the house where Devdikar lived. An ATS officer told TOI they had come to Aurangabad to verify information on Devdikar. "The suspect resided in the city till 2-3 years ago and operated a store. He had also taken a shop on rent," the officer said.
Jagdish Kulkarni, owner of the shop taken on rent by Devdikar, said, "He was very religious. He took my shop on rent and ran a store for two years before closing it down. While leaving, he said he was shifting to his in-laws' place in Solapur."
Police sources said Devdikar was picked up from a house at Bhagat mohallah in Katras, Dhanbad, on Thursday. He was working at a petrol pump in Katras for the past seven months, said IG (operations) Saket Kumar Singh, who is also the spokesperson for the Jharkhand police.
SSP (Dhanbad) Kishore Kaushal said, "The Karnataka police informed us that the suspect is right-leaning and was involved in several other murder cases." Police said nothing objectionable was found at Devrikar's Katras residence.
Lankesh was shot dead on September 5, 2017 in front of her house in Bengaluru. So far, the Karnataka SIT has arrested 16 other suspects in connection with the murder and filed chargesheets.
The investigative agencies from Maharashtra and Karnataka are working together after common links in the murders of Dr Narendra Dabholkar, Prof M M Kalburgi, Govind Pansare and Lankesh. Prior to this, the Central Bureau of Investigation, which is probing the Dabholkar murder case, had arrested Sachin Andure, who was from Aurangabad. CBI alleged that Andure was among the two persons who shot at Dabholkar in Pune in 2013.