Karnataka HC grants first bail in Gauri Lankesh case

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Bengaluru, Dec 09, 2023: The Karnataka High Court on Friday granted bail to Mohan Nayak N, the 11th accused in the journalist Gauri Lankesh murder case. Nayak is alleged to have conspired with the other accused to kill Lankesh. The bail was approved by a single-judge bench of Justice S Vishwanath Shetty.

 

As per the investigation, Nayak rented a house at Ramanagara in an isolated place to hatch the murder plan and had given shelter to accused number 2 & 3 who are the actual assailants in the present case.

Notably, Nayak is the first accused in the Gauri Lankesh murder case to obtain bail.

One of the grounds on which Nayak was granted bail was the delay in the trial.”In the present case, out of 527 charge sheet witnesses, only 90 witnesses have been examined. This Court on 11.02.2019 directed the Trial Court to expedite the trial.

Though charges were framed in the present case on 30.10.2021, for the last more than two years, only 90 witnesses have been examined. There are more than 400 charge sheet witnesses who are yet to be examined in the case.

Even if it is assumed that all the witnesses mentioned in the charge sheet may not be examined in the case because only 90 witnesses have been examined for the last more than two years, it can be safely presumed that any time soon, the trial of the case may not be completed,” the HC said in its judgement. Nayak has been in custody since July 18, 2018.

Considering the delay, the HC said, “Petitioner has been in custody for the last more than five years. Though Section 22(4) of COCA provides for certain rigours for enlarging the accused on bail as against whom charges are made for the offences punishable under the COCA, the same cannot fetter the powers of this Court to enlarge the accused on bail when there is undue delay in trial and the material on record would go to show that the trial may not be completed any time soon.”

“From a perusal of the order sheet maintained by the Trial Court in Spl.CC.No.872/2018, it is seen that delay in the trial cannot be attributed to the accused,” it said granting him bail.

Nayak is charged under Sections 302, 120B, 118, 203, 35 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Sections 25(1) & 27(1) of the Indian Arms Act, 1959, and Sections 3(1)(i), 3(2), 3(3) & 3(4) of the Karnataka Control of Organized Crimes Act, 2000 (COCA). His earlier bail plea before the HC was rejected.

In the current petition, Nayak’s advocate had argued that “Out of 23 charge sheet witnesses who have spoken about the role of the petitioner in the crime, only one witness has been examined before the Trial Court till date. The other 22 witnesses are yet to be examined.” Gauri was murdered outside her residence in Bengaluru on September 5, 2017 by bike-borne men.

The police arrested a total of 17 men in connection with the case and claim that Gauri’s murder was connected to the murder of Kannada writer M M Kalburgi and those of Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar in Maharashtra. Nayak was released on a personal bond of Rs one lakh and two sureties for similar amounts.