Lankesh killing: Court rejects bail plea of six accused

A SESSIONS court has rejected a bail plea — citing delays in the start of their trial — of six of the 18 accused in the 2018 killing of journalist Gauri Lankesh, indicating that part of the reason for the delay was the frequent filing of intervening applications by the accused themselves.

A SESSIONS court has rejected a bail plea — citing delays in the start of their trial — of six of the 18 accused in the 2018 killing of journalist Gauri Lankesh, indicating that part of the reason for the delay was the frequent filing of intervening applications by the accused themselves.

Amit Degwekar, Bharat Kurne, Rajesh Bangera, Sudhanwa Gondhalekar, Sujith Kumar and Manohar Edave, who are associated with Sanatan Sanstha and its affiliate Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, sought bail on the grounds that the trial in their case had not commenced despite a February 2019 court order to expedite it.

The accused were arrested in 2018 after investigations revealed that they were part of a secretive outfit spawned by the Sanatan Sanstha’s extremist religious ideology. The SIT probe revealed that members of the outfit gunned down Gauri Lankesh, 55, Kannada scholar M M Kalburgi, 77, and Maharashtra progressive thinkers Govind Pansare, 81 and Narendra Dabholkar, 69, between 2013 and 2018.

The sessions court rejected their bail plea on February 20, stating that part of the reason for the delay in the commencement of the trial – apart from the Covid-19 crisis – was frequent applications filed by the accused.

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