BENGALURU: A gun store employee on Tuesday told a city court that one of the accused in the Gauri Lankesh murder case had visited the shop where he worked in 2010 or 2011 and purchased an air gun.
Syed Shabbir, of a private gun store in City Market, said this while deposing before judge CM Joshi of the special court for Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act cases, which is conducting trial in the case.
However, during cross-examination, Shabbir contradicted his voluntary statement made before a magistrate in early 2018 that police had brought the accused, KT Naveen Kumar from Maddur, to the store, and he had identified Kumar as the man who purchased the air gun.
Shabbir informed the court that police never brought Naveen to the shop where he worked and it was in Central Prison (Parappana Agrahara) that he saw Naveen and identified him.
"I sold an air gun to Naveen," Shabbir reiterated from his statement, adding: "In early 2018, police visited our shop and questioned whether we sell air guns. When I answered yes, they asked for a copy of the bill given to Naveen when he purchased the air gun. But I failed to provide the same."
When the counsel for the defendants contended that Shabbir had never identified Naveen, the gun store staffer stood by his claim.
Krishna Kumar, a family friend of Gauri Lankesh who had volunteered himself in the spot mahajar, told the special court that he came to know about the incident through news on the night of September 5, 2017.
"When I reached Gauri's house, there was a huge crowd and police had begun their investigation. I agreed to volunteer and sign the spot mahajar papers. There were files, envelopes and a key bunch of the house found inside the car, four empty cartridges of 7.65mm pistol, found near the place where Gauri's body had fallen, and blood samples," Kumar said.
When the defendant counsel asked how he was aware that the cartridges were of a 7.65mm pistol, he replied: "I was an NCC cadet during my student days and have an idea of firearms and bullets."
Kumar also identified the materials recovered from the crime scene, including Gauri's mobile phone, files, books and envelopes.
