LANKESH CASE: 4 YRS ON, TRIAL YET TO BEGIN; SC TO HEAR SISTER’S PLEA

BENGALURU: September 5 marked four years since Gauri Lankesh, a journalist turned activist, was murdered in front of her house. Even though the Special Investigation Team (SIT) filed a charge sheet in the case on March 10, 2018, the trial is yet to begin.

On September 8, the Supreme Court is expected to hear the plea filed by Kavitha Lankesh, challenging the dropping of charges under the Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act 2000 (KCOCA) against one of the accused in the murder case. A bench led by Justice AM Khanwilkar had issued notice to the Karnataka government on the petition filed by Kavitha, in which she appealed against the state high court’s decision in April to quash charges against Mohan Nayak.

KCOCA is a law enacted by the state since 2000 to combat organised crime and terrorism. The Act was modelled on the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, 1999 (MCOCA). According to the police, if the charges of KCOCA are dropped against Nayak, it could set precedence for charges to be dropped against other accused in the case. The hearing in the case is expected to start following this hearing, which the SIT said is crucial for the investigations on other rationalist murders.

During the investigation, the SIT found that a nameless organisation that recruited rightwing activists from various Hindutva organisations was behind the murder. The investigation into the Lankesh murder case also unearthed a link between the murders of four rationalists – MM Kalburgi, Govind Pansare, Narendra Dhabolkar, and Lankesh.