Gauri Lankesh case: Karnataka BJP sends Ramchandra Guha legal notice

The Karnataka BJP Yuva Morcha on Monday sent a legal notice to public intellectual Ramchandra Guha for alleging that the RSS and the party had a role in the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh.

"It is very likely that her murderers came from the same Sangh Parivar from which the murderers of Pansare, Dabholkar and Kalburgi came," Guha had said, referring to the spate of murders of rationalist thinkers in which right wing elements are suspected to be involved.

"Your deliberate, false and calculated statement against our client's organisation has caused great anguish in the minds thousands of its members and sympathisers," the notice says. "Your baseless utterances are also calculated to influence and mislead the on-going investigations of the said incidents. This amounts to illegal interference in the course of justice and is also a grave offence," it reads.

It demands that Guha immediately issues an apology to the BJP and the RSS for "making such defamatory, baseless and false allegations".

"If you fail to comply with the aforesaid instructions, our client... would be constrained to initiate civil and criminal prosecution against you, at your sole costs and consequences," the notice ends.