Gauri Lankesh murder case: Karnataka High Court rejects default bail plea of key accused

The high court, however, ruled on October 21 that Devadikar cannot seek relief under Section 167 (2) of the Criminal Procedure Code for bail since the SIT had already filed a charge against him prior to his arrest and the investigating agency sought an extension of 90 days to file an additional charge sheet as prescribed by the Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act, 2000.

The high court pointed out that an additional charge sheet was filed by the SIT against Devadikar a month in advance of the 180 days available to the agency to do so.

“I am of the considered opinion that in the present case, a charge sheet having been laid against the petitioner even prior to the arrest of the petitioner, the petitioner having been arraigned as an accused and charged with certain offences punishable under 302, 120(B), 114, 118, 109, 201, 203, 204, 35 IPC & 25 (1), 25(1B), 27(1) of Indian Arms Act and Section 3(1)(i), 3(2), 3(3), 3(4) of KCOCA, I am of the considered opinion that the benefit under Subsection (2) of Section 167 of Cr.P.C. would not arise,” the Karnataka High Court ruled.

Following Devadikar’s arrest in January 2020, the Karnataka SIT sought court permission to file a further charge sheet after 180 days as permitted under KCOCA. The SIT submitted an additional charge sheet against Devadikar on June 25, 2020 “within the said extended period”, and hence “there is no question of statutory/default bail,” Justice Suraj Govindaraj ruled.

Devadikar was arrested by the SIT in Jharkhand in January 2020 after he disappeared following Lankesh’s murder. Devadikar alias Murali is allegedly linked to the right-wing group, Sanatan Sanstha, and its affiliate, the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS). Several articles on the HJS website recorded his presence at meetings of the Sanatan Sanstha and the HJS.

Devadikar was named as accused number 18 in a charge sheet filed by the SIT in November 2018 in connection with Lankesh’s murder. He is alleged to have been one of the key plotters and allegedly provided training and the guns used by the assassins. “He was primarily involved in the conspiracy to murder Lankesh,” the SIT said in January 2020.

According to the SIT, Devadikar is a key founding member of a crime syndicate created in 2011 by the former HJS activist Virendra Tawade to carry out assassinations of persons perceived as being anti-Hindu. The group is alleged to have carried out the killings of Maharashtra rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, 69, in 2013, Leftist thinker Govind Pansare, 81, in 2015, Kannada scholar M M Kalburgi, 77, also in 2015, apart from the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh in 2017.