BIG DEVELOPMENT| Gauri Lankesh's alleged murderer confesses he was in touch with Pramod Muthalik and was once part of Bajrang dal; Here's the full confession

In an exclusive newsbreak, Republic TV has exclusively accessed the statement of the murder accused Naveen Kumar, who has admitted that Gauri Lankesh was killed for her Anti-Hindu stand and that the rationalist was killed as a part of his fight for dharma.

Here are some crucial points which were mentioned in the 12-page statement that was recorded by Naveen Kumar (Accused 1).

• The accused has been in touch with Pramod Muthalik and Prabhakar Shetty.
• He gave a provocative speech in Goa's Hindu Jan Jagruthi event and was recognised after that by the hardliners.
• After being contacted by Manohar Gowda, a hardliner, Naveen said he is ready for armed struggle to save Dharma.
• He was later contacted by Praveen (accused 2 in this matter).
• Naveen Kumar assured Praveen that he will provide gun and bullets for protection of dharma.
• Naveen met Praveen for the first time in Vijayanagar in Bengaluru on August 20 in 2017.
• The decision was taken to 'eliminate' Gauri as they believed she spoke I'll of Hinduism for long.
• Praveen asked Naveen for another gun. Assured he had boys ready for the attack.
• Naveen tried arranging for bullets from Kollegala and Ooty but failed.
• He procured bullets from Belagavi later.
• After Gauri murder, all accused planned to assassinate KS Bhagwan as well.

Earlier, Republic TV had accessed sensational details of the chargesheet in the Gauri Lankesh murder case, specifically, a five-page statement by the wife of the first accused, Naveen Kumar.

As per Naveen's wife's statement, her husband had met with an accident, after which he became a Hindu hardliner. He began to believe that he should fight for the cause of Sanathana Dharma, she claimed, narrating a sequence of events where he brought home a gun and later worshipped the gun with his blood.

Naveen would frequent Goa in order to interact with a pro-Hindu organisation. He also took part in programmes of the Sanathana Sanstha in Karnataka's Shimoga and established the Hindu Yuva Sene in Mandya in the state.

On May 29, the SIT that was probing the murder had arrested Praveen, a.k.a. Sachit Kumar, a native of Mangalore who had earlier been arrested in an Arms Act case as well. Naveen Kumar, meanwhile, had been arrested on March 9. At that time, they were alleged to have conducted reconnaissance near Gauri Lankesh's house in Bengaluru's Rajarajeshwari Nagar.