Pramod Muthalik, Chief of the radical Hindu outfit, ‘Sri Ram Sene’ has stooped to a new low. He has insulted late journalist Gauri Lankesh by referring to her as a ‘dog’. The right-wing fringe outfit, Sri Ram Sene, which is already under the scanner for possible ties with the murder of Gauri Lankesh, stopped to a shocking new low on Sunday as he slandered the slain journalist-activist and compared her to a “dog.” Muthalik was addressing a public gathering where he slammed the critics who have been asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi to break his “silence” over Gauri’s murder. Gauri was shot dead by two assailants outside her house in Bengaluru on 5th September 2017.Gauri was killed in the same way as MM Kalburgi, a Sahitya Akademi Award winner and a doughty campaigner against superstition in Hinduism, was shot dead in August 2015 at his home in Karnataka’s Dharwad district. In February the same year, Govind Pansare, a Left politician and rationalist, was shot at and fatally injured by unidentified assailants in Kolhapur in Maharashtra.
Anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar was shot dead when he was on a morning walk on August 20, 2013, prime accused Sarang Akolkar (35) and Vinay Baburao Pawar (37), members of Sanatan Sanstha, continue to remain at large, away from the clutches of the CBI and the SIT who continue to beat a bare path in the case. The duo had shot dead Dabholkar on August 20, 2013, around 7.25 am on the V R Shinde bridge in the city.
Addressing a rally, Muthalik said, “Two murders happened in Karnataka and two happened in Maharashtra during Congress regime. No one is uttering a word over Congress government’s failure. Instead, they are asking why is PM Modi silent and commenting on Gauri Lankesh’s death. Many wanted PM Modi to react after Gauri Lankesh’s death. Why should Modi react if some dog dies in Karnataka?” Muthalik’s derogatory statements were met with applause from the crowd who also chanted “Jai Shri Ram” as per the video of the event. On Saturday, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Gauri Lankesh murder case summoned Rakesh Math, the Vijayapura district president of Sri Ram Sene, for questioning, news agency PTI reported. The decision to question Math was taken by the SIT as the suspected shooter, Parashuram Waghmore, was an active member of the Hindutva organisation that has courted controversies in the past in the state due to its “moral policing” activities, the news agency reported.
Interestingly, an undated photograph of Muthalik and the suspected shooter Waghmore, who has reportedly confessed to his crime, surfaced in the media, raising questions of alleged link between the Hindutva outfit and the murder of the journalist-activist. A report by the Times of India quoted a senior SIT official saying that Waghmore had confessed that he killed the journalist-activist to “save his religion”. He was arrested from north Karnataka’s Vijayapura district a few days ago.