Almost five years after journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh (55) was shot dead by two bike-borne assailants outside her residence in south Bengaluru, a special court will begin the trial in the murder case on May 27. This special court is designated to try cases booked under the Karnataka Control of Organised Crimes Act (KCOCA), 2000.
Judge Anil Bheemanna Katti from the special court issued summons to Kavita Lankesh, the slain activist's sister and informant in the case, to depose before the court on May 27, when the trial commences.
Gauri Lankesh, who was shot dead on September 5, 2017, was the editor of Kannada magazine Gauri Lankesh Patrike and was actively involved with Komu Sauharda Vedike (communal amity forum) that worked to bring harmony among communities. She was also part of a committee appointed by the then Congress government headed by Siddaramiah that aimed at bringing Naxalites into the mainstream.
Gauri’s murder had stirred nationwide outrage and protests. The state government constituted a special investigation team (SIT) comprising IPS officers M.N. Anucheth and P. Rangappa to probe the case. The SIT made its first arrest on March 10, 2018, when they took Naveen Kumar, a member of Hindu Yuva Sene, into custody for being part of a conspiracy to kill Gauri.
The first charge-sheet was filed against Naveen Kumar on May 30, followed by an additional submission on November 23, 2018, by the SIT before the principal civil and sessions court, where 18 accused were named. The SIT identified one Amol Kale as the mastermind, Parashuram Waghmare as the shooter and others like Amit Degwekar and Sujith Kumar as responsible for arming and training the assailants along with indoctrinating them.
The charge-sheet stated that the Hindu extremist organisation, Sanatan Sanstha, was responsible for the murder of Gauri Lankesh and added that her murder was linked to the killings of other left-leaning activists and rationalists such as professor M.M. Kalburgi, Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare. Gauri Lankesh was targeted for opposing hindutva vehemently in her writing and speeches.
In August 2019, the Centre awarded the Home Minister's Medal for Excellence to the SIT for its investigation into Gauri Lankesh's murder.
While all 18 accused were arrested, none were convicted owing to delay in commencement of the hearing in the murder case.
On April 22, 2021, the Karnataka High Court quashed the August 14, 2018, order of the police authority granting approval to invoke KCOCA for investigation against one of the accused, Mohan Nayak. He had been accused of harbouring Gauri Lankesh's killers and being a critical member of an “organised crime syndicate”.
Kavitha Lankesh had filed a private petition with the Supreme Court challenging the Karnataka High Court (HC) order quashing the charges under KCOCA against Mohan Nayak, who had been arrested on July 19, 2018.
In October 2021, the SC set aside portions of the Karnataka High Court order, stating it was “manifestly wrong and cannot be countenanced”. It noted the HC exceeded its jurisdiction in quashing the charge-sheet filed against Nayak.
A bench comprising Justices A.M. Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and C.T. Ravikumar noted the investigation by SIT has revealed that Nayak, arrested on July 18, 2018, had “intimate nexus with the brain behind the entire event being none other than Amol Kale and master arms trainer Rajesh D. Bangera who are part and parcel of a crime syndicate and committed organised crimes as such”.
In its judgement, the court declared if the role of the offender is merely that of a facilitator or of an abettor, the requirement of the named person being involved in more than two charge-sheets registered against him in the past is not relevant. An accused need not be a person who had a direct role in the commission of an organised crime for invoking the charges, the bench said.
