Outfit slams invoking of KCOCA on Gauri suspects

Organisers of Hindu Vidijna Parishad have questioned the Special Investigation Team’s (SIT) decision to invoke the Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act (KCOCA) against the 12 arrested in the Gauri Lankesh murder case.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, the Parishad’s national president Virendra Ichalkaranjikar said The state government and police are soft towards the accused who killed RSS workers, while invoking the severe KCOCA on Hindu activists arrested by the SIT.

In all, eight Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) workers had been killed in the state by members of Popular Front of India (PFI). One of them, abid Pasha, has been involved in several killings. Yet none of them were booked in KCOCA, he said.

Senior Hindu Vidhidnya Parishad office bearer and the advocate defending the accused NP Amrutesh dismissed the charges against the accused persons as false. He also said the statement taken by the SIT are false and cannot be admissible in court since they were obtained from the accused under duress.

"The state and the SIT have invoked KCOCA on the accused to impress the Leftists’ organisations," he said.

He said the organization has called for a rally on Wednesday against the propaganda of some organizations to portray Sanatan Sanstha as a terror outfit with an intention to secure a ban on it.