Court reserves order on bail pleas of 16 accused in Gauri Lankesh murder case

Bengaluru: The principal city civil and sessions court reserved orders on bail petitions filed by 16 of the 18 accused arrested in connection with the Gauri Lankesh murder case on Friday to Feb 7^th.  

Amol Kale, Parashuram Waghmore, Amit Baddi, Ganesh Miskin, Manohar Edave, Sujit Kumar, Rajesh Bangera, Suresh Kumar, Sudhanva Gondelkar, Suryavamshi, Amit Degwekar and others are the accused in the case. One of the accused Naveen Kumar has sought bail in another case, while another, Mohan Naik has appealed in the high court for bail.

One of the advocates appearing for the accused had argued that the Special Investigation Team probing the murder had overlooked a few essential conditions when charging the accused under Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act (KCOCA) and fabricated evidence.

Umashanker argued that the chargesheet against the accused was filed beyond the stipulated period of 180 days. “SIT claims that it was filed within 180 days, which is false. Any chargesheet filed in court should be entered in the register, but the SIT didn’t do so. This is a major lapse. Also, SIT erred by invoking KCOCA against most of the accused. Suspects booked under it should have criminal antecedents and booked in at least three criminal cases. Most suspects in this case have no criminal background.”

Responding to the argument special public prosecutor S Balan argued that the he chargesheet was filed on November 23, 2018, the 175th day. “Soon, the case was adjourned to future dates. Section 3 of KCOCA explains that any crime syndicate involving two or more criminal cases can be booked under the Act. Waghmore, Kale and Miskin have at least two chargesheets against their names. Naturally, other suspects formed a syndicate and they can be booked under KCOCA,” he maintained.