Gauri Lankesh murder case: Supreme Court restores KCOCA charges against accused

With the order, a possibility of the accused getting bail would become difficult during the pendency of the trial

The Supreme Court on Thursday restored the Karnataka Control of Organised Crimes Act (KCOCA) charges against one of the accused in the 2017 murder case of activist Gauri Lankesh. It 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.

A three-judge bench presided over by Justice A M Khanwilkar allowed separate appeals filed by filmmaker Kavitha Lankesh, sister of slain activist Gauri Lankesh, and the state government against the High Court's decision of April 22 to quash the charges against the accused Mohan Nayak N.

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"Offences punishable under Section 3(2), 3(3), 3(4) or 3(5) of the KCOCA, can proceed against any person sans such previous offence registered against him if there is material to indicate that he happens to be a member of the organised crime syndicate who had committed the offences in question and it can be established that there is material about his nexus with the accused who is a member of the organised crime syndicate," the bench said.

With today's order, the possibility of the accused getting bail would become difficult during the pendency of the trial.

The top court had earlier ordered that the plea for bail moved by accused Nayak, a resident of Dakshina Kannada, after dropping of stringent charges, cannot be allowed until it decided the instant matter.

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The court noted the investigation by SIT has revealed that Nayak, arrested on July 18, 2018, had "intimate nexus with the brain behind the entire event being none other than Amol Kale and master arms trainer Rajesh D Bangera who are part and parcel of a crime syndicate and committed organised crimes as such".

In its judgement, the court declared if the role of the offender is merely that of a facilitator or of an abettor, the requirement of the named person being involved in more than two charge sheets registered against him in the past is not relevant.

An accused need not be a person who had a direct role in the commission of an organised crime for invoking the charges, the bench, also comprising Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and C T Ravikumar, said.

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It said the HC's order was "manifestly wrong and cannot be countenanced". The HC exceeded its jurisdiction in quashing the charge sheet filed against Nayak.

According to the petitioners, Nayak was part of the syndicate led by Amol Kale which has committed multiple organised crimes apart from the murder of Gauri.

The plea said that charge sheets have been filed with respect to the murders of Dr Narendra Dabolkar in 2013, Govinda Pansare in 2015, Dr M M Kalburgi in 2015 and conspiracy to murder Prof Bhagavan in 2018.

“Accordingly, the condition of at least two charge sheets having been filed against the syndicate in the last 10 years along with cognisance by competent court stands fulfilled," it contended.

Lankesh, a leading journalist, was killed on September 05, 2017, outside her house at Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Bengaluru. Kavitha is a complainant in the case.

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