A magistrate court in Bengaluru on Monday granted the Special Investigation Team looking into journalist Gauri Lankesh’s murder permission to conduct a narco-analysis test on the accused. The team got the go ahead after the accused, Naveen Kumar, consented, The Times of India reported.
Kumar’s lawyer A Vedamurthy told the newspaper that his client was being framed in the case. “He has agreed to the test, hoping he will be set free after his innocence is proved,” the advocate said. “Naveen wants the truth to come out and hence gave his consent.”
After allowing the narco-analysis test, which The Times of India said may be conducted at the Forensic Sciences Lab in Gujarat, the court remanded Kumar in judicial custody for two weeks.
Lankesh was shot dead outside her house in Bengaluru’s RR Nagar locality on September 5. The police suspect that Kumar may have taken the unidentified gunmen to her home. Kumar, purportedly a member of the Hindu Yuva Sena, is believed to have talked to his friends about his connection with Lankesh’s murder.
The Karnataka Police arrested the 37-year-old suspect on February 18 for illegal possession of bullets. The Special Investigation Team took him into custody on March 3.
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