Gauri Lankesh’s case shouldn’t fall by the wayside owing to police apathy
In all these cases, there was enough forensic evidence for the police to act on. But they don’t seem to have made any headway either due to incompetence or deliberate neglect
editorials Updated: Sep 06, 2017
A link is being
drawn between the ghastly murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh in
Bengaluru, that of rationalists Narendra Dabholkar in Pune in 2013,
Govind Pansare in Kolhapur in 2015 and MM Kalburgi in Dharwad in 2015.
It is too early to come to any conclusion about Lankesh’s killing as
investigations are underway. But, many see this as an assault on the
freedom of the press. Indeed, there is no denying that journalists have
come under great pressure in recent times especially those reporting on
injustices and corruption. There are two worrying aspects that must be
highlighted. In all these cases as also similar ones which have not got
much notice, the murders have not been carried out in any secretive
manner. Rather, the killers have quite openly approached the victim and
carried out the crime in full view of others and in the case of
Lankesh,CCTV cameras.
This suggests that they have no fear of the law or of being apprehended. This also suggests that they may have powerful backers. The other is that these cases have been hanging fire for years. It can only be hoped that Lankesh’s case does not become a casualty to such apathy. The killers in all these cases have left behind enough evidence for the police to proceed on. Surely using ballistics and forensic evidence, some headway could have been made by now on the older cases. In fact, these cases had receded into the background and have been resurrected now only after Lankesh’s killing. From the time lag, we can only conclude that the police are either incompetent or are dragging out these cases for whatever reason. This is simply unacceptable. There have been demands for the Karnataka’s chief minister’s resignation. But this serves no purpose. In Lankesh’s case, she had also been involved in rehabilitating Maoists and this also earned her many enemies. But from whichever source the threat came, it is inexplicable that the police did not have a greater handle on the situation and seem to have been caught completely unawares.
This suggests that they have no fear of the law or of being apprehended. This also suggests that they may have powerful backers. The other is that these cases have been hanging fire for years. It can only be hoped that Lankesh’s case does not become a casualty to such apathy. The killers in all these cases have left behind enough evidence for the police to proceed on. Surely using ballistics and forensic evidence, some headway could have been made by now on the older cases. In fact, these cases had receded into the background and have been resurrected now only after Lankesh’s killing. From the time lag, we can only conclude that the police are either incompetent or are dragging out these cases for whatever reason. This is simply unacceptable. There have been demands for the Karnataka’s chief minister’s resignation. But this serves no purpose. In Lankesh’s case, she had also been involved in rehabilitating Maoists and this also earned her many enemies. But from whichever source the threat came, it is inexplicable that the police did not have a greater handle on the situation and seem to have been caught completely unawares.
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