Gauri Lankesh killing: Court Rejects Bail of 6 Accused who Cited Delay in Trial
A court of sessions has rejected a bail statement, citing delays in the start of their trial, for six of the 18 defendants in the 2018 murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh, indicating that part of the reason for the delay was filing frequent requests for intervention by the defendants themselves.
Amit Degwekar, Bharat Kurne, Rajesh Bangera, Sudhanwa Gondhalekar, Sujith Kumar and Manohar Edave, who are associated with Sanatan Sanstha and its Hindu Janajagruti Samiti affiliate, requested bail claiming that the trial in their case had not started despite a court of February 2019. to expedite it.
The defendants were arrested in 2018 by a Karnataka Police Special Investigation Team after investigations revealed they were part of a secret group spawned by the extremist religious ideology of Sanatan Sanstha. The SIT investigation revealed that team members shot Gauri Lankesh, 55, Kannada academic MM Kalburgi, 77, and progressive thinkers from Maharashtra Govind Pansare, 81, and Narendra Dabholkar, 69, between 2013 and 2018.
The court of sessions rejected his bail statement on February 20, stating that part of the reason for the delay in the start of the trial, in addition to the Covid-19 crisis, was the frequent requests submitted by the defendants themselves. “By reading the entire order sheet, it would show that the matter was postponed from time to time, due to a request filed by one or the other defendant,” observed the court.
“The hearing of the prior bond application and release application has also been time-consuming. Thereafter, in 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the court’s operation stagnated. Defendants 1-18 are separated and placed in different jails and are represented by a separate attorney. The order sheet would also reveal in which instance the case was postponed, ”the court said.
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