The SIT officials probing the journalist Gauri Lankesh murder case have claimed that the 26-year-old  Parshuram Waghmore is the one who pulled the trigger and killed journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh, outside her home, on the fateful night of 5th Sept 2017.  A native of Sindhagi in Vijayapura district, Waghmore has allegedly claimed that at the time of the murder he did not know whom he was killing. He was just told to kill somebody as to save his religion. According to  SIT Sources  Waghmore confessed to the crime, “I was told in May 2017 I had to kill someone to save my religion. I agreed. I didn’t know who the victim was. Now I feel that I should not have killed the woman”.

On September 3, Waghmore was brought to Bangalore, two days before the Gauri Lankesh murder, and was given a recce to her house. As per the SIT sources, his initial plan was to kill Gauri Lankesh on the same day, but he was not able to carry the task as she was already inside her house. Waghmore, then stayed in RR Nagar, Bangalore with another person, who accompanied him to Gauri’s house on the day of her murder.

“On September 5, I was given some hours before the incident. Late in the evening we went to Gauri’s house and waited for her to come. As soon as she arrived in her car, we went to her. While she was coming out of her car, I coughed lightly, and she turned towards me. I pumped four bullets into her,” Waghmore’s reportedly confessed to SIT

Gauri’s sister Kavita who has been pursuing the investigation is shocked and asked, “People are openly being threatened and harassed. We always knew why she was killed. Enough evidence is available. How did Waghmare save his religion by killing my sister?”

Immediatley after the alleged confession of Waghmore to SIT, the team also questioned Rakesh Math, Sri Rama Sene chief of Vijayapura district, regarding the link between Parshuram Waghmore and him.

Rakesh Math’s six-hour-long interrogation came hours after Sri Ram Sena’s facebook post. The post was an appeal to the people to raise money for the support of Waghmore’s family.

Few days before Rakesh Math’s questioning, another photo of Waghmore and Sri Ram Sena founder Pramod Muthalik had gone viral. Meanwhile, Muthalik has denied having any ties with Waghmore. He has claimed that he keeps attending several functions and people come and approach him for pictures.”Everyone who gets their picture clicked with me is not a member of my organisation. I don’t know who Parshuram is,” he reacted to the media.

It is believed that despite the denial by Pramod Muthalik , there is evidence of old ties between him and Waghmore. In 2012, the Pakistan national flag was hosted in Sindagi district in Karnataka. This incident made a lot of Hindu hardliners groups angry. One of those groups was Sri Ram Sena, who staged a protest in the area and had alleged that the Muslims families are trying to disrupt peace by such acts. Six arrests were made in the case. Parshuram Waghmore and Pramod Muthalik were among the six arrested in the case. Special investigation team (SIT) interrogating Gauri Lankesh Killing claimed to have got a significant breakthrough in the case.