Karnataka High Court Grants Bail To Four Accused Allegedly Involved In Gauri Lankesh Murder Case

The Karnataka High Court recently granted bail to four accused allegedly involved in the murder case of journalist Gauri Lankesh.

A single Judge bench of Justice S Vishwajith Shetty granted bail to Bharat Kurane, Srikanth Pangarkar, Sujith Kumar and Sudhanva Gondhalekar, on them executing a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh each, with two sureties of like amount.

The petitioners are charged 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 counsel for the petitioners contended that the allegations against these accused were also about conspiring with the other accused persons to commit the murder of the deceased.

It was stated that the co-accused in the case nos.5, 7, 11 & 17, against whom similar allegations are found in the charge sheet, have been granted regular bail by this Court on the grounds of their long incarceration and the order was confirmed by the Supreme Court.

The prosecution opposed the bail pleas.

The court relied on the order of the coordinate bench while granting bail to the co-accused. It noted that the order passed by this Court in Crl.P.No.7963/2023 enlarging accused no.11 on regular bail was challenged by the State and the defacto complainant unsuccessfully.

It observed that the Supreme Court while dismissing the special leave petitions filed by the State and the defacto complainant has taken note of the fact that the prosecution is still required to examine about 100 charge sheet witnesses and it is in this background, that the Supreme Court had refused to interfere with the order passed by this Court.

Then it held “Under the circumstances, the prayer made by the petitioners for grant of regular bail who stand almost on the same footing along with accused nos.5, 7, 11 & 17 requires to be answered affirmatively.”

Allowing the petition, the court directed them to appear regularly on all the dates of hearing before the Trial Court unless the court exempted their appearance for valid reasons, not to directly or indirectly threaten or tamper with the prosecution witnesses and not leave the jurisdiction of the trial court without prior permission.

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: Senior Advocate Aruna Shyam for Advocate Divya R B, Advocate Amar Correa for Petitioners.

Special PP Ashok N Naik for Respondents

Citation No: 2024 LiveLaw (Kar) 405

Case Title: Bharat Jaywant Kurane AND State of Karnataka

Case No: CRIMINAL PETITION NO. 7787 OF 2024 C/W CRIMINAL PETITION NO.7811/2024, 7809/2024, 7805/2024.

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