Mysore, Sept. 10 (PTI): Karnataka chief minister P.C. Siddaramaiah today slammed Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad for accusing the state government of failing to protect slain journalist Gauri Lankesh.

Siddaramaiah said Lankesh had never sought protection.

"The central minister said the government knew about the threat, and Gauri had sought security, but government did not give.... It is most irresponsible statement given by a central minister, who also is a law minister," the Congress leader told reporters here.

Prasad had on September 8 shown copies of news reports on Lankesh's brother Indrajit's claims that she had worked for the surrender of Maoists and asked why the Siddaramaiah government had not provided her security.

Siddaramaiah said his government would have provided security to Lankesh if she had asked for it. "If someone asks for security, we will give it.... Nobody expected it. She never ever spoke about threats and sought security," he said.

Lankesh, he added, was "a very good human being" and even talked to her opponents.

Replying to a question, Siddaramaiah said Maharashtra and Karnataka police were coordinating to crack the cases related to the killings of rationalists M.M. Kalburgi, Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare. "It is not that no progress has been made in Kalburgi's killing. Some progress has taken place, but the police are yet to gather evidence to find out the assailants," he said.

Dabholkar was shot dead in August 2013 in Pune. Pansare was shot at on February 16, 2015, in Kolhapur and succumbed to his injuries on February 20 that year. Kalburgi was shot dead in August 2015.