Court directs police to provide security for Gauri murder case witness

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru:

The Special Public Prosecutor in the Gauri Lankesh murder case submitted to the court that the witness set to testify against Parusharam Waghmore, the prime accused, has received threats. S Balan told the special court for Karnataka Control of Organised Crime that witness Daulat, a friend of the prime accused, on his way to Bengaluru to testify, received death threats.

However, when the witness was asked by the court about the same, he denied that there were no threats, say media reports. Ramachandra Huddar, the special judge then told the accused that the witnesses should not be threatened in any way, shape or form.

If done so, the matter would be considered seriously. The court also directed attorneys to provide security to the witness who gave his statement before the bench if needed. Gauri Lankesh was murdered on September 5, 2017 outside her Rajarajeshwarinagar home. Before this, three witnesses, of which two were policemen, had been examined by the court.

Shiva Reddy, a police inspector who arrived at the murder scene, was questioned by the defence and was also examined by the state public prosecutor. Reddy was responsible for taking Waghmore, who shot Lankesh, back to the crime scene in 2018 after his arrest. VN Kalageri, the second witness examined, was the assistant engineer from the Public Works Department, who drew the map of the crime scene for further investigation.