Will oppose CBI probe into murder case: Gauri Lankesh's sister

Bengaluru: Murdered journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh's sister Kavitha has said that she will oppose any move to handover probe in the case to CBI, saying the Special Investigation Team of the Karnataka police had made significant progress, managing to arrest 16 suspects.

The Supreme Court had recently recommended a CBI probe into the murders of Gauri Lankesh, rationalist MM Kalburgi and social activist Govind Pansare, to see if there was a "common thread" in the killings that happened over a period of five years.

"The SIT did a brilliant job by arresting the accused in the case. It filed two charge sheets also. When there is so much headway, it does not make any sense to hand over the case to CBI," she told news agency PTI.

MM Kalburgi's son Sreevijaya said that he had faith in judiciary and any decision will be in the best interest of his family.

On December 11, a bench of Supreme Court justices UU Lalit and Navin Sinha had asked the CBI, already probing the killing of Narendra Dabholkar, whether it would like to investigate the three other cases too.

Earlier, the Karnataka police had informed the top court that there could be an "intimate connection" between the murders of MM Kalburgi in 2015 and Gauri Lankesh in 2017.

Gauri Lankesh was shot dead in front of her house in Bengaluru on September 5, 2017. So far 16 people have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the killing.