Sessions Court Grants Bail To 8 Accused In Gauri Lankesh Murder Case; 16 Out Of 18 Accused Get Bail

A Sessions Court in Bengaluru has granted bail to eight accused involved in the alleged murder case of journalist Gauri Lankesh.

The court granted bail to accused Amol Kale, Rajesh D Bangera, Vasudev Suryawanshi, Rushikesh Devadekar, Parshuram Waghmore, Ganesh Miskin, Amith Ramachandra Baddi and Manohar Dundeepa Yadave. The bail was granted by the special court on October 9. The detailed order is yet to be made available.

There are a total of 18 accused in the case, of which accused no 15 Vikas Patel alias Dada Alias Nihal is absconding. The accused are being prosecuted in the case for charges under Sections 302, 120B, 118, 203, 35 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.

The Karnataka High Court recently had granted bail to accused Bharat Kurane, Srikanth Pangarkar, Sujith Kumar and Sudhanva Gondhalekar vide its order dated September 4. Accused No 11, N Mohan Nayak alias Sampanje was the first accused to be granted bail by the High Court on December 7, 2023, which the Supreme Court confirmed in August 2024. Further, the High Court vide its order dated July 16, had granted bail to accused Amit Dighvekar, K T Naveen Kumar, and Suresh H L.

The counsels for the petitioner had raised the primary ground of delay in trial to seek bail. It was claimed that there are 527 charge sheet witnesses and only 140 witnesses have been examined till date. The chances of the trial being completed in the immediate near future are not there.

Special Public Prosecutor S Balan appearing for the prosecution said it was considering challenging the bail orders.

On September 5, 2017, journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh was shot dead in front of her residence in south Bengaluru. The police have arrested 18 persons in the case. The first charge sheet in the case was filed against Naveen Kumar on May 30. On November 23, 2018, the SIT submitted an additional 9,235-page chargesheet to the Principal Civil and Sessions court. The second chargesheet named 18 people as accused in the murder.

Appearance: Advocate Sparsh Shetty for A1.

Advocate Manoj S.N. for A4 and A14.

Advocate Ashwin Kumar H for A2, A3, A8, A12, A18.

SPP S Balan For Respondent.

Case Title: RAJA RAJESHWARI NAGARA PS AND Amol Kale & Others

Case No: SPL.C 872/2018