Threat letters: Gauri Lankesh case accused had befriended the writer, say investigating agencies

The threat-letter writer, who harassed several prominent writers of the State for over a year, was finally arrested this September. It has now emerged that the accused, Shivaji Rao Jadhav, 41, from Davangere, was befriended by Sujith Kumar, who allegedly worked as a recruiter for the gang that allegedly killed M.M. Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh

The threat-letter writer, who harassed several prominent writers of the State for over a year, was finally arrested this September. It has now emerged that the accused, Shivaji Rao Jadhav, 41, from Davangere, was befriended by Sujith Kumar, who allegedly worked as a recruiter for the gang that allegedly killed M.M. Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh.

According to the investigating agencies, Sujith Kumar, hailing from Shikaripur, Shivamogga district, known by his aliases Praveen and Manjunath, was known to be identifying youths - mostly those in Hindutva groups and highly motivated and capable of committing crimes - and grooming them.

He allegedly “brainwashed” them and recruited them into the gang, with most of those leading it linked to Goa-based Sanatan Sanstha and its sister-organisation Hindu Janjagruti Samiti, which allegedly killed four writers and activists in Maharashtra and Karnataka between 2013 and 2017.

He is listed as accused number 13 in the chargesheet filed by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the Gauri Lankesh case and is presently in judicial custody, even as the trial is under way.

The chargesheet alleges that Parashuram Waghmore, the alleged shooter of Gauri Lankesh, was recruited by Sujith Kumar. 

“Shivaji Rao Jadhav’s name and his old phone number were found in a diary recovered from Sujith Kumar during his arrest in 2018. Shivaji confessed to have known him and to have met him multiple times. He confirmed the person by looking at his photograph, but he knows him by the name of Manjunath,” a senior Central Crime Branch (CCB) official, probing the threat-letter case, told The Hindu.

“He was definitely marked out as one of the potential recruits by Sujith Kumar. Shivaji claims he did not know of the murders. But if Sujith was not arrested by the SIT in 2018, probably he may have groomed Shivaji further and may have used him to carry out some offence. But that is hypothetical,” the officer said.