LANKESH CASE: SC INDICATES IT MAY SET ASIDE PART OF K’TAKA HC ORDER
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday “tentatively” indicated that it might set aside a part of the Karnataka high court order quashing the charge sheet in the journalist Gauri Lankesh murder case.
Hearing a plea by the slain journalist’s sister on the high court order quashing charges of harbouring the murder accused under the Karnataka Control of Organized Crime Act (KCOCA), 2000, the court said: “The high court has dealt with the matter lightly by quashing the charge sheet without analysing it. This is a serious thing. You cannot quash the charge sheet just like that”.
The bench of justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar reserved its verdict on the plea.
Gauri Lankesh was shot dead in Bengaluru in September 2017. On April 22 this year, the high court had quashed charges made by a Special Investigation Team against Mohan Nayak of providing shelter to the murder accused under KCOCA.
Lankesh’s sister Kavitha Lankesh, a filmmaker, had petitioned the apex court against the high court’s order.
“Tentatively, we are indicating that we will quash the last part of the high court judgment as once the charge sheet is quashed, nothing remains for the investigating agency to find out whether you are a member of the organized crime syndicate under KCOCA,” the Supreme Court bench said.
The SIT had taken approval from Karnataka’s additional director general of police on August 14, 2018, to invoke sections under the KCOCA against Nayak.
A probe by the agency had revealed that Nayak was in close touch with Amol Kale, the main accused in the murder. Kale is also facing a probe in connection with the murders of political activist Govind Pansare at Kolhapur in Maharashtra in February 2015, and noted Kannada writer MM Kalburgi in August 2015 in Dharwad, also in Maharashtra.