Gauri Lankesh murder case: SC issues notice to accused on Karnataka govt plea to cancel bail

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice on Karnataka government's petition questioning validity of the High Court's order granting bail to accused Mohan Nayak in murder case of journalist Gauri Lankesh.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Satish Chandra Sharma sought a response from the accused as advocate V N Raghupathy for the Karnataka government submitted the state has filed a petition in this regard.

In January, the court has issued a similar notice to the accused on a plea by Kavitha Lankesh, sister of the deceased.

Advocate Aparna Bhat appeared for Kavitha, the complainant in the case.

The court ordered to tag both the petitions and decided to put it for hearing on April 9.

The Karnataka HC had on December 7, 2023 granted bail to him.

Lankesh, a leading journalist, and activist was killed on September 5, 2017 outside her house at Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Bengaluru.

The HC had said the accused has been in jail for more than five years and there can't be fetters of the power to enlarge the petitioner on bail when there is undue delay in trial, which may not be completed anytime soon.

Notably, the Supreme Court has on October 21, 2021 set aside High Court's decision of April 22, 2021 to quash the charges under the stringent the Karnataka Control of Organised Crimes Act (KCOCA) against the accused Mohan Nayak N.

It has then held that the stringent provisions can be invoked against a member of the crime syndicate involved in organised crimes without two previous charge sheets against him.

It was alleged that Nayak was part of the syndicate led by Amol Kale which has committed multiple organised crimes apart from the murder of Gauri.

In its petition, the Karnataka government submitted that the order of the High Court will lead to the contrary results in law in similar cases, considering the contradictions.

It said the High Court's order is unsustainable in law and must be interfered with.

"The High Court has ignored the law laid down by this court on multiple occasions, holding that in a successive bail application, the question required to be looked into is the change of circumstances alone since the co-ordinate bench has already held that the petitioner is not entitled to bail," the state government said.