A classes court docket has rejected a bail plea – citing delays within the begin of their trial – of six of the 18 accused within the 2018 killing of journalist Gauri Lankesh, indicating that a part of the explanation for the delay was the frequent submitting of intervening functions by the accused themselves.
Amit Degwekar, Bharat Kurne, Rajesh Bangera, Sudhanwa Gondhalekar, Sujith Kumar and Manohar Edave – who’re related to Sanatan Sanstha and its affiliate Hindu Janajagruti Samiti – sought bail on the grounds that the trial of their case had not commenced regardless of a February 2019 court docket order to expedite it.
The accused have been arrested in 2018 by a Special Investigation Team of Karnataka Police after investigations revealed that they have been a part of a secretive outfit spawned by the Sanatan Sanstha’s extremist non secular ideology. The SIT probe revealed that members of the outfit gunned down Gauri Lankesh, 55, Kannada scholar M M Kalburgi, 77, and Maharashtra progressive thinkers Govind Pansare, 81 and Narendra Dabholkar, 69, between 2013 and 2018.
The classes court docket rejected their bail plea on February 20, stating that a part of the explanation for the delay within the graduation of the trial – aside from the Covid-19 disaster – was frequent functions filed by the accused themselves. “On perusal of the entire order sheet, it would go to show that the matter came to be adjourned from time to time, due to an intervening application filed by one or the other accused,” the court docket noticed.
“The hearing of earlier bail application and discharge application also has consumed sufficient time. Thereafter, in the year 2020, due to pandemic Covid-19, functioning of court was stalled. The accused No 1 to 18 are split and placed in different jails and are represented by separate counsel. The order sheet also would reveal at whose instance the case was being adjourned,” the court docket mentioned.
“Therefore, under these circumstances, in my opinion the delay in commencing the trial cannot be a ground for grant of bail to the accused. Therefore for these reasons I am of the opinion that the accused are not entitled for bail,” it mentioned.
