Gauri Lankesh murder case: Supreme Court dismisses plea to cancel bail to accused Mohan Nayak N

New Delhi: The Supreme Court dismissed a plea against the Karnataka High Court's order granting bail to accused Mohan Nayak N in the 2017 murder case of journalist Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru.

A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma noted the accused was in custody since July 18, 2018, and cooperated with the trial court in its proceedings and that 100 witnesses are yet to be examined in the case.

"Under the circumstances, we are not inclined to interfere with the orders passed by the High Court," the bench said.

The Karnataka government as well as Kavitha Lankesh, a sister of the deceased, and the complainant filed separate petitions challenging the High Court's order of December 7, 2023.

Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra appearing for the Karnataka government stated that so far 137 witnesses have been examined by the prosecution, 137 witnesses have been dropped and the prosecution is also likely to drop 150 more witnesses, and now about 100 witnesses are still to be examined.

Declining to interfere with the High Court's order, the bench directed the trial court to expeditiously conduct the trial and directed all parties concerned to cooperate with the trial court in concluding the proceedings.

"It goes without saying that if the respondent – accused does not cooperate or asks for unnecessary adjournment or commits breach of any condition, the State of Karnataka or the complainant shall be at liberty to apply for cancellation of bail, and if any such application is filed, the same shall be decided on its own merits and in accordance with law," the bench said in its order on August 21.

Lankesh, a leading journalist and activist was killed on September 05, 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 release the petitioner on bail when there is undue delay in trial, which may not be completed anytime soon.

Notably, the Supreme Court had on October 21, 2021 set aside the 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 had 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 was involved in 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 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 had said.