Written by: Ishita Pal (Intern)
Edited by: Anubhav Yadav (Content Head & Developer)
On the basis of the plea filed by filmmaker Kavitha Lankesh, The Supreme Court reserved the order on Tuesday while she challenged the Karnataka HC judgment by quashing charges under the Karnataka Control of Organised Crimes Act (KCOCA) against the accused Mohan Nayak in the murder case of Gauri Lankesh.
CASE NAME: KAVITHA LANKESH VS. STATE OF KARNATAKA
FACTS
- In 2017, Gauri Lankesh, 55 was shot dead in front of her house in Bangalore on September 5 who was known for her strong anti-Hindutva views and now triggering outrage nationwide.
- PTI reported that 18 people have been accused at the time of death including some persons e.g., shooter Parashuram Waghmare, the mastermind Amol Kale, Sujith Kumar alias Praveen and Amit Degwekar for the sudden death of the Gauri Lankesh who was a famous journalist.
- PTI also facilitate that there was a gang that killed Gauri Lankesh. They suspected that the gang involved in the killing of the other three rationalists those people are M.M. Kalburgi, Narendra Dabholkar, and Govind Pansare.
- When the first charge sheet was presented against the accused, it had voted that the accused was saying by sources that Lankesh was killed for hard extremely anti-Hindu views. 37 years old Kumar, the accused, was enraged after attending the convention of the Sanatan Sanstha and Hindu janjagruti Samiti in Goa in June 2017.
- Investigators pound that Kumar said he had received mail instructions regarding his role in the lot or in the place of killing Lankesh from a Bangalore-based man whom he can identify as Praveen. Sources also state that Sujit Kumar arrested from Mangalore was also identified as the man referred to as Pravin by Naveen Kumar. The other state people who were connected with this case were Amol Kale alias bhaisahb from Maharashtra, Amit Degwekar alias Pradeep from Goa, and Manohar, who was a resident of Karnataka.
- SIT enclosed with a report given by Karnataka Forensic Science Laboratory (KFSL) that Lankesh was also killed with the same 7.65 mm country-made gun that was also used to kill Karnatak Scholar M M Kalburgi of Dharwad in Karnataka happened on August 30, 2015.
- Lankesh was on the second number in the two lists with a total of 34 names who was marked in 2016 for murder in a diary recovered from a key suspect linked to a radical Hindutva group, according to SIT.
PLEA OF PETITIONER
Senior advocate Huzaifa Ahmadi appeared from the side of the petitioner; the sister of the deceased submitted that the petition along with the state that the court was in error while concluding that the KCOCA Act wasn’t applicable at all.
COURT’S ORDER
- After hearing both sides i.e., Senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi who was appearing on the side of Petitioner & Advocate Basava Prabhu S Patil who was appearing in the side of the accused, the Bench of Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice CT Ravikumar reserved the orders.
- Judges indicated that they were inclined to quash the last part of the order of the prior one, if they found any kind of material collating with the charge sheet, then the charge sheet will proceed against the accused.
- Justice Khanwilkar remarked about the seriousness of this case while Justice Maheswari said about the different types of quashing the charge sheet.
- The court afterwards ordered the counsels of both parties to file their written submissions within one week from 21st September 2021.