Gauri Lankesh murder: Charges under KCOCA, IPC framed against 17

The 17 accused, drawn from various right-wing Hindutva fringe outfits, were arrested by a Special Investigation Team of the Karnataka Police. Lankesh was alleged to have been targeted for being “anti-Hindu”. The special court in an order said the charges were explained to the accused, and they had pleaded non-guilty. The 17 were produced before the court via video-conferencing from the jails where they are lodged, including Bengaluru Central Prison, Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai and Yerwada Jail in Pune. The court directed jail authorities “not to transfer any of the accused to any other prison without specific orders” to ensure a smooth trial”.

While the SIT filed a chargesheet nearly three years ago, the start of the trial was delayed due to various applications filed by the accused, the fact that they are in different jails, and the Covid situation. All accused have to be present in court at the stage of framing of charges, a key legal step. The 17 accused were eventually produced before the Bengaluru court virtually.

The framing of charges comes days after the Supreme Court upheld the use of KCOCA against key accused Mohan Nayak in the case. Police had urged for an appeal against a HC order dropping the stringent KCOCA charges apprehensive of its fallout on the case. As The Indian Express reported earlier, Karnataka government had dragged its feet on filing an appeal.

Early in its investigations, the SIT found that the 7.65 mm country-made pistol used to gun down Lankesh was the same as the one used to kill Kannada scholar M M Kalburgi in Dharwad on August 30, 2015, and Leftist thinker Govind Pansare in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, on February 16, 2015. A second gun used in the Pansare shooting was found to be a match for the gun used to shoot Maharashtra rationalist Narendra Dabholkar in Pune on August 20, 2013. The accused include Amol Kale, 37; Parashuram Waghmore, 27; Ganesh Miskin, 27; Amith Badd , 27; Amith Degvekar, 38; Bharath Kurane, 37; Suresh H L, 36; Rajesh Bangera, 50; Sudhanva Gondalekar, 39; Sharad Kalaskar, 25; Mohan Nayak, 50; Vasudev Suryavamshi , 29; Sujith Kumar, 37; Manohara Edave, 29; Srikanth Pangarkar, 40; K T Naveen Kumar, 37; and Rushikesh Deodikar, 44.