A preliminary forensic analysis of bullets and cartridges found at the site of the September 5 shooting of journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh and those recovered from the killing of Kannada research scholar M M Kalburgi two years ago has revealed that the same 7.65-mm countrymade pistol was used for the two killings.

This finding has been communicated to the Special Investigation Team that is probing the murder of the 55-year-old journalist and activist.
Lankesh was shot dead at her residence in West Bengaluru by an unidentified assailant with a 7.65-mm countrymade pistol around 8 pm while she was opening the gates to her home to park her car after returning from work. Kalburgi was killed at his home in the north Karnataka town of Dharwad at around 8.40 am on August 30, 2015, by an unidentified gunman who rang his doorbell.

Police recovered the three bullets that pierced Lankesh’s heart and lungs before exiting her body and a bullet that missed her along with the four empty cartridges. While the four cartridges were found at the murder site shortly after the killing, the fatal bullets were found by a search of the crime scene with metal detectors.

Investigators decided to compare the “ballistic signature” on the bullets and cartridges in the Lankesh case with that of bullets and cartridges in the Kalburgi case. The analysis has reported a match suggesting that one common gun was used in the two killings. This also suggests that one common outfit or group is behind the two killings, an official said.

Guns are believed to leave unique markings on cartridges and bullets when the cartridge is struck by the firing pin and the bullet travels through the barrel on the lines of fingerprints although there are sceptics who caution against using this matching test for crude country-made weapons.

The forensic finding from the comparison of the ballistic evidence from the Lankesh and Kalburgi cases when juxtaposed with the forensic analysis of the shooting down of Maharashtra rationalist Govind Pansare, 81, on February 16, 2015, in Kolhapur, suggests that the same gun has been used in three different killings over the last 30 months.

Following the murder of Kalburgi and Pansare in 2015, the Karnataka CID had attempted to analyze the evidence in the two cases by comparing striations on the bullets and cartridges used in the two murders and had found a match.