3 ACCUSED IN LANKESH KILLING IN ATS CUSTODY TILL OCTOBER 12

MUMBAI: The Maharashra antiterrorism squad (ATS) on Saturday obtained custody of three persons – accused in the Gauri Lankesh murder case – for their role in the Nallasopara arms haul case. The agency on Saturday produced Amol Kale, 34, one of the key conspirators, Amit Baddi, 27, and Ganesh Miskin, 28, before the special court under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and sought their custody. The court has remanded the three to ATS custody till October 12.

The accused were lodged in jail in Karnataka, after which the ATS brought them to the city on Saturday morning and produced them in court.

The chief public prosecutor Jaysingh Desai argued that the three have a nexus with the accused, who were arrested from Maharashtra with a huge quantity of arms, and their custodial interrogation is required to unearth the conspiracy.

The agency claimed that they needed to see if there were other members in the group and find out who the mastermind was.

Desai later argued that they have recovered several handwritten notes in coded language, which they need to decipher. They also need to confront the accused with the electronic data recovered from computers of other accused.

The defence lawyer Sanjeev Punalekar objected to the demand of the custodial interrogation contending that the accused have been in custody for a long time and they have been interrogated for many days by the Karnataka special investigating team (SIT).

The defence alleged that the prosecution has not established any links between the accused of the Lankesh murder case and the accusedfromwhotheyrecovered arms and ammunition.

The special judge VS Padalkar, however, observed that the investigation prima facie shows that there is a nexus between the two groups and the investigating agency needs to be given time to investigate the case.