Recently, a tweet targetting India media, by the username Ratan Sharda has gone viral in which one can see an image of a news report titled, "Gauri's killer was Cong MLC's aide." This post is being shared with a claim this news was intentionally not covered by a section of media as it does not suit their propaganda. The tweet reads, "Why is this news not catching on?? Where are those great Liberals & Seculars who were naming RSS BJP from day zero?"

This tweet has been shared over 2100 times at the time of writing this article.

On September 5, 2017, a senior journalist and activist, Gauri Lankesh, was murdered just outside her home in Bengaluru. Soon after killing, Congress and other political parties blamed BJP and RSS ideology for the murder, as Gauri Lankesh was a staunch critic of Hindutva.

Ratan Sharda has shared a screenshot of a tweet by Rishi Bagree, who shared this image of this news report back in 2018. Rishi wrote, "Gauri Lankesh killer was Congress MLC's man. And this news was hidden in a small column in page 6 of today's newspaper. This is how Indian Media works."

As per the news report, a man named Rajesh Bangera was arrested by SIT. The man was working as a personal assistant to Congress MLC of Kodagu Veena Achaiah.

The truth behind the claim 

While investigation we found that this report was published in English news daily, The Times of India on July 26, 2018. 

In our investigation, we found that Rajesh D Bangera was the 10th accused in connection with journalist Gauri Lankesh's murder have confessed his crime to the Special Investigation Team. 

As per reports, Bangera trained Parashuram Waghmare, the suspected shooter, in using firearms and supplied live bullets to the killers. The 50-year-old was a resident of Paluru in Kodagu district, was working as a personal assistant to Kodagu Congress MLC Veena Achaiah. Earlier, he worked as an official in the Education department and later worked as PA to District Panchayat Official Sherin Subbaiah, before working under Veena Achaiah.

Bangera has confessed to having procured and supplied 20 live bullets to the team that is behind Gauri’s murder. Prior to that, he admitted he trained Parashuram Waghmare, Ganesh Miskin and others associated with the outfit in the firing. The training sessions were held at several places in Karnataka and Maharashtra,” an SIT official said 

“He trained Kale’s boys and showed them how to handle guns and fire at a safe range for effective results,” said a source from the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is probing the case was quoted. Amol Kale has been identified as the prime accused in the Gauri Lankesh case

So far, 18 people have been arrested in the murder case with the latest arrest being made as early as January this year. Hrishikesh Devdikar alias Murli, the alleged mastermind of Gauri Lankesh's killing in Bengaluru in 2017, was arrested from Dhanbad in Jharkhand in January. The same group is also accused of killing rationalist MM Kalburgi.

The SIT had named Sanatan Sansthan in its additional charge sheet filed before a city court. The SIT also said that the 18 accused in the case are active members of an organised crime syndicate. According to the SIT, the members of the syndicate strictly followed the guidelines and principles mentioned in the book "Kshatradharma Sadhana".

Sanatan Sanstha has, however, dismissed the SIT's allegations in connection with the murder case.