SC issues notice over plea challenging bail to Gauri Lankesh murder accused

The Supreme Court has issued a notice over a petition challenging the Karnataka High Court’s decision to grant bail to an accused in journalist Gauri Lankesh’s murder case, LiveLaw reported.

Lankesh, who was shot dead outside her house in Bengaluru in 2017, was a journalist and editor of Kannada tabloid Lankesh Patrike. A chargesheet was filed while further investigation continued. Mohan Nayak, who was arrested in 2018, was accused of harbouring other suspects in the murder conspiracy. The high court granted bail in December last year while noting that he had spent over five years in custody and the trial was not likely to be completed soon.

The high court also said that even if the charges against Nayak were proved, the offences were not exclusively punishable with death or life imprisonment. The minimum punishment entailed imprisonment for five years and Nayak had already undergone incarceration for that period, it noted.

However, Justices Vikram Nath and Satish Chandra Sharma of the Supreme Court have now issued a notice in a plea moved by Lankesh’s younger sister Kavita Lankesh.