E-Paper
Gauri Lankesh murder case trial likely to begin in October: Officials
A local court has directed prison authorities to relocate all accused in the Lankesh murder case to Bengaluru to begin framing of charges.
The murder trial of journalist Gauri Lankesh is likely to begin in October, officers of the special investigation team said on Saturday on condition of anonymity, more than four years after she was gunned down in Bengaluru.
A local court has directed prison authorities to relocate all accused in the case to Bengaluru to begin framing of charges.
“In view of the accused being placed in different jails and one or the other accused not being produced, the framing of charge is being deferred on one or the other reason. Hence, the accused who are placed in Ballari, Tumkur, Mysuru and Shivammoga jail are ordered to be brought to the central prison, Parappana Agrahara, Bengaluru for the purpose of framing charges,” read an order issued by the principal sessions court in Bengaluru.
Lankesh, a journalist and activist, was shot dead on the night of September 5, 2017, in front of her Rajarajeshwari Nagar home in Bengaluru.
As many as 17 accused in the case -- including murder accused Parashuram Waghmore and main conspirator Amol Kale -- are lodged in different jails in Karnataka and Maharashtra.
In October, the Supreme Court is expected to give a verdict in a petition filed by Kavitha Lankesh, Gauri Lankesh’s sister, challenging the dropping of charges under the Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act 2000 (KCOCA) against one of the accused, Mohan Nayak, in the murder conspiracy.
In August, a bench led by justice AM Khanwilkar of the Supreme Court had issued notice to the Karnataka government on the petition filed by Kavitha Lankesh, in which she appealed against the Karnataka high court’s decision in April to quash charges of harbouring the murder accused against Nayak.
KCOCA is a law enacted by the state in 2000 to combat organised crime and terrorism. The law was modelled on the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, 1999 (MCOCA). According to police, if charges under KCOCA are dropped against Nayak, it could set a precedence for charges to be dropped against the other accused in the case as well.
During the investigation, the SIT found that an unnamed organisation that recruited right-wing activists from various Hindutva organisations was behind the murder. The investigation into the Lankesh murder conspiracy also unearthed a link between the murders of rationalists MM Kalburgi, Govind Pansare and Narendra Dhabolkar.
According to SIT officials, the trial of the Lankesh case will have an impact on the investigations into the murder of the other rationalists, which have not progressed.
In the initial days of the investigation, the SIT found a connection between the murders of Lankesh and Kalburgi, who was killed on August 30, 2015. The four bullets and cartridges recovered from Lankesh’s house matched with the slugs and cartridges in Kalburgi’s murder. Forensic labs found that the bullets were fired from the same gun.
The Maharashtra SIT, which is probing the murder of Pansare, found that the same gun (CHECK) was used in the Lankesh and Pansare murders. The link between the murders of Lankesh and Dabholkar, who was killed on August 20, 2013, emerged during the later stages of the investigation.
