Lankesh was murdered a few months ago. But the terrorist module had several other names including those of rationalists on their hit-list. The masterminds were Pune-based engineer Amol Kale and Parshuram Waghmare.
Along with other fanatics, they planned and murdered Lankesh. Apart from Waghmare and Kale, the other accused include KT Naveen Kumar, Sujith Kumar alias Praveen, Manohar Dundappa Edave alias Manoj and Amit Degwekar alias Pradeep Mahajan.
Edave, another accused, who is in police custody told police that he updated Kale and Dada, who is still absconding, about Lankesh's movement. Along with KT Naveen Kumar, Yadave had followed her.
Naveen Kumar's wife told SIT that her husband had bought a pistol and offered his blood to it. She told the police she had gone with her husband to Mangalore and when next day there were reports about the murder, she spoke to him but he didn't react.
Sources said that Naveen had met Praveen and other associates at Belagavi city hotel on November 20 to discuss the plan to eliminate KS Bhagwan, the noted writer. He admitted names of Kale, Parveen, Amit Digwekar and another person to a forest near Mandya to practice shooting.
The police found 22 cell phones in his possession and 21 in Kale's possession. Amil Kale, who livres in Pune, has been associated with Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS), a radical Hindutva group in the past.
Waghmare had confessed that he shot Lankesh. Kalue and Amit had trained Parshuram at Satara in Maharashtra and Belagavi in Karnataka. When asked why he killed her, he would tell interrogators that he did it for the 'sake of Hinduism'.
Waghmare had been arrested in the past with five Ram Sene members for unfurling a Pakistani flag outside tehsildar office at Sindagi. Kale had recruited and trained Waghmare. They had once made a bid on her life and failed. On the second occasion, the assassins pumped multiple bullets, killing her on the spot.
A diary has been recovering and there are names of several rationalists including theatre personality Girish Karnad in it. Other names on the hit-list include politician-litterateur B.T. Lalitha Naik, pontiff Veerabhadra Chennamalla Swamiji of Nidumamidi Mutt and rationalist C.S. Dwarakanath.
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