Supreme Court rejects pleas seeking cancellation of bail granted to man accused in Gauri Lankesh murder case

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed two petitions seeking cancellation of bail granted to one of the men accused of plotting the assassination of journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh. The Indian Express reported.

A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma dismissed a petition filed by Lankesh’s sister Kavitha Lankesh challenging the bail granted to Mohan Nayak, noting that the accused had cooperated with the trial court.

It also dismissed an appeal filed by the Karnataka government on the issue.

Gauri Lankesh, editor of a periodical named Patrike Gauri Lankesh and a prominent critic of Hindutva groups, was shot dead outside her home in Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Bengaluru, by a group of men on the night of September 5, 2017, while she was returning home after work.

In December 2023, the Karnataka High Court granted bail to Nayak, who had been incarcerated since July 2018, due to delay in the completion of his trial.

Kavita Lankesh had then moved the Supreme Court challenging Nayak’s bail.

During the hearing on Tuesday, senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for the Karnataka government, told the court that 137 witnesses had been examined by the prosecution in the case, Live Law He added that there were only 100 witnesses left to question.

The court said Nayak had cooperated with the trial and had not sought its adjournment, adding that he had been in custody since 2018. Bar and bench reported.

“In these circumstances, we are not inclined to interfere with the impugned decisions rendered by the High Court,” the order said. “The special leave applications are, therefore, dismissed.”

The court also ordered the lower court to “conduct the trial expeditiously,” according to Live Law.

Months after releasing Nayak on bail in December 2023, the High Court In July, the Supreme Court granted bail to three other men – Amit Digvekar, KT Naveen Kumar and HL Suresh – accused of Gauri Lankesh’s murder. All three had sought bail citing the example of Naik.

Investigating agencies said that Gauri Lankesh’s murder and three other cases were linked and Hindutva groups were behind them.

These cases include the murder of Kannada writer and anti-superstition activist MM Kalburgi in August 2015 and the murder of rationalist and Communist Party of India leader Governor Pansare in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, the same year.

In 2013, an anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar was assassinated in Pune.

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