ICC Note: According to forensic reports, the same gun was used to kill both a prominent journalist and a scholar who were critical of the BJP-led government and the rise of Hindu nationalism in India. Gauri Lankesh and M.M. Kalburgi were both considered “rationalists” in India and stood against the use of religion in politics. Their murders by Hindu radicals represent another indicator that religious freedom in India is on the decline under the BJP-led government.  

06/08/2018 India (New York Times) – The gun that was used last year to kill a prominent journalist critical of the Indian government was the same weapon employed in the murder of a scholar with similar ideological leanings, the local news media said Friday, citing a forensic report.

The apparent link suggests an organized — if local — campaign to silence critics of the Hindutva movement, the far-right Hindu nationalists who overwhelmingly support the governing Bharatiya Janata Party. The journalist, Gauri Lankesh, was killed last September, just over two years after the death of the scholar, M.M. Kalburgi.

Ms. Lankesh and Mr. Kalburgi, who were both accused by right-wing groups of insulting Hinduism, were killed at their homes in the southern state of Karnataka.

Although one of the suspects in Ms. Lankesh’s murder was arrested earlier this year and does not have an apparent link to the Bharatiya Janata Party, the current government has been accused of tolerating its supporters’ use of violence to intimidate critics and stoke sectarian tension.

The Indian Express newspaper reported the contents of the forensic report, detailing that the same 7.65-millimeter gun had been used in both murders.

Officials investigating the case were not immediately reachable.

In March, the police arrested Naveen Kumar, the founder of the far-right group Hindu Yuva Sena, on suspicion of his involvement in Ms. Lankesh’s murder. Mr. Kumar later confessed to supplying bullets to a right-wing Hindu nationalist who said he intended to use them to kill Ms. Lankesh because she was “anti-Hindu.”

The forensic report was part of the charge sheet against Mr. Kumar presented to the court by investigators late last month.

Both Ms. Lankesh and Mr. Kalburgi were known as “rationalists,” a term used in India to describe those who oppose the use of religion in politics. During her career, Ms. Lankesh, 55, had been sued several times, accused of defamation by leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

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