Journalist Gauri Lankesh’s murder shook India on on September 5, 2017, a rare case of assassination of a promiment journalist, when she was shot from a close range near her house in Rajarajeshwari Nagar in Bengaluru by accused Mohan Nayak and the Supreme Court ruled today, canceling a Karnataka High Court order, Karnataka Control of Organised Crimes Act (KCOCA) which was dropped by the High Court in April, after which Gauri Lankesh’s sister Kavita Lankesh had approached the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
Kavita Lankesh, a filmmaker, had said in her petition before the Supreme Court that Mohan Nayak, according to a special investigation team (SIT) probe, is part of a ‘syndicate’ responsible for multiple instances of organized crime, including the murder of her sister and other activists, Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare.<\/p>\n
According to Kavitha Lankesh’s<\/a> petition, Nayak is also a close associate of Amol Kale and Rajesh Bangera, both of who are the chief accused in the case. The plea mentions that as defined by the KCOCA, Nayak was involved in “continuous unlawful activity” by providing shelter to the key accused individuals before and after the crime.<\/p>\n Ms Lankesh’s counsel also referred to the role of the accused, as noted in the high court order, and said that he had allegedly taken a house on rent in the pretext of running an acupressure clinic but it was meant to accommodate members of the syndicate.<\/p>\n The high court had struck down the August 14, 2018 order of the police authority granting approval to invoke KCOCA for investigation against Nayak. On September 21, the Supreme Court had reserved its decision on the petition challenging the order of the High Court.<\/p>\n The 3-member SC bench that set aside the high court order comprised of Justices A. M. Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari, and C. T. Ravikumar.<\/p>\n Notably, on June 29 this year, the Supreme Court issued notice to the Karnataka government and others, after hearing the SLP. Senior lawyer Hufeza Ahmadi, appearing for Kavita, had submitted before the apex court that Nayak, accused number 6 in the case, was relying on the impugned judgment of the High Court to seek bail.<\/p>\n The apex court had observed that a decision on the bail application of the accused should be “uninfluenced” by the impugned verdict. In her plea, Kavita also challenged the suggestion to club the investigation into her murder with those of writer MM Kalburgi, and rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare, and hand it over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).<\/p>\n The petition submitted that the High Court erred by “not examining the scheme of Section 24 of KCOCA which states that prior approval ought not to be granted by any officer below the rank of Additional Director General (ADG) of Police which has been duly complied with in the present case”.<\/p>\n You might also want to read https:\/\/www.hamslive.com\/news\/2021\/07\/16\/top-indian-journalist-danish-siddiqui-killed-in-afghanistan\/\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n