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Gauri Lankesh murder accused to face charges under KCOCA: Supreme Court
Mohan Nayak, the accused in question obtained an order from the Karnataka high court on April 22 which held that the charges under the 2000 Act were not made out against him
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed one of the accused in the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh to be tried under the Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act, 2000 (KCOCA).
Mohan Nayak, the accused in question obtained an order from the Karnataka high court on April 22 which held that the charges under the 2000 Act were not made out against him. The high court went on to quash the charge sheet filed by the special investigation team (SIT) in the case.
Setting aside the HC order on separate appeals filed by Lankesh’s sister and filmmaker Kavitha Lankesh and the Karnataka government, a three-judge bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar said, “The High Court committed manifest error and exceeded its jurisdiction in quashing the charge sheet filed before the competent court qua the writ petitioner – Mohan Nayak N, regarding offences under Section 3(1)(i), 3(2), 3(3) and 3(4) of the 2000 Act.”
Lankesh was shot dead in Bengaluru in September 2017 and Nayak was accused of providing shelter to one of the shooters involved in the incident. Initially, a case of murder was registered on September 5, 2017 but after the investigation stood transferred to SIT, it was found Nayak was in close touch with Amol Kale, the main accused in the murder.
Incidentally, Kale is also facing probe in connection with the murders of political activist Govind Pansare at Kolhapur in Maharashtra in February 2015 and noted Kannada writer MM Kalburgi in August 2015 in Dharwad, also in Maharashtra. Connecting the dots, the SIT took approval from the Karnataka’s additional director general of police on August 14, 2018 to invoke KCOCA provisions against Nayak to show he was part of an organised crime syndicate.
On prima facie reading, the approval was granted and SIT filed a supplementary charge sheet under KCOCA provisions against Nayak in November 2018. The trial court also took cognisance of this charge sheet a month later.
This approval granted by the Karnataka police was challenged by Nayak in the HC, which proceeded on the basis that for a person to be charged under KCOCA, there must be past criminal cases or charge sheets filed against him.
The bench, also comprising of justices Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar, said, “The specific role of the concerned accused is not required to be and is not so mentioned in the state prior approval (of August 14, 2018). That aspect would be unraveled during investigation, after registration of offence of organised crime. The high court, thus examined the matter by applying erroneous scale.”
The bench further stated that the HC judgment glossed over the “core and tangible facts” which required that the persons accused under KCOCA need not be one who has direct role in the commission of an organised crime as such. Even the requirement of having more than two criminal cases or charge sheets in the preceding 10 years will not be applicable for invoking provisions under the 2000 Act to show nexus with the accused, who is a member of organised crime syndicate and where the person charged has been found to play the role of an abettor or facilitator in the crime, the bench added.
In the present case, the SIT discovered Nayak’s nexus with the “brain behind the entire event being none other than Amol Kale and master arms trainer Rajesh Bangera” who were part and parcel of an organised crime syndicate and had committed organized crimes as such.
The court finally clarified that the judgment will not come in the way of the accused seeking any other relief as the consideration was limited to the correctness of prior approval for invoking KCOCA provisions against Nayak.
