On Thursday (7th December), the Karnataka High Court granted bail [pdf] to one Mohan Nayak, who has been in custody for 5 years in connection to the Gauri Lankesh murder case.
It must be mentioned that Gauri Lankesh, a controversial ‘journalist’, was killed at her Bengaluru residence by assailants on 5th September 2017. Soon after, the Karnataka police launched a probe into the case.
Mohan Nayak was arrested on 18th July 2018 and thereafter booked under the stringent Karnataka Control of Organized Crimes Act (COCA). He has been languishing in jail ever since and his bail application has been rejected on 5 different occasions.
Only 1 witness examined by trial court since 2017
Although there are 527 witnesses mentioned in the case chargesheet, only 90 of them have been examined since 2021. Mohan Nayak is accused by the police of ‘conspiring’ to murder Gauri Lankesh, attending meetings to that effect and harbouring assailants in a rented house.
A total of 23 witnesses have given testimonies about Nayak renting a room in Kumbalagodu town on the outskirts of Bengaluru in August 2017 with two other accused. Out of them, only 1 has been examined before the trial court to date.
It must be noted that the Karnataka High Court in 2019 rejected the bail application of Mohan Nayak and asked the trial court to expedite the trial in the Gauri Lankesh murder case. Due to a delay in trial, Nayak suffered 5 years of incarceration.
No evidence on record that shows Mohan Nayak part of organised crime
On Thursday (7th December), a single-judge bench of Justice S Vishwajith Shetty of the Karnataka High Court noted –
“Though charges were framed in the present case on 30.10.2021, for the last more than two years, only 90 witnesses have been examined. There are more than 400 charge sheet witnesses who are yet to be examined in the case. Even if it is assumed that all the witnesses who are cited in the charge sheet may not be examined in the case, considering the fact that only 90 witnesses have been nexamined for the last more than two years, it can be safely presumed that any time soon, the trial of the case may not be completed.“
The court pointed out that the evidence on record does not show that Mohan Nayak is in a member of organised crime. as claimed by the prosecution.
“Though he is alleged to be a member of the syndicate committing organized crime, the material on record would go to show that he is not arrayed as co-accused in any of the cases registered against the other accused persons for committing organized crimes.“
No witness testified that Mohan Nayak held meeting with assailants
The Karnataka High Court noted that Nayak did not offer financial assistance to the other accused. It added that no witness testified about him being a part of a meeting that planned on killing Gauri Lankesh.
“From a perusal of the statements recorded under Section 161 Cr.PC of the 23 charge sheet witnesses who have spoken about the role of the petitioner in the
present case, it is seen that none of these witnesses have stated that the petitioner was a part of the meeting of the accused persons, wherein the accused had conspired to murder Gouri Lankesh. Most of the aforesaid charge sheet witnesses have only spoken about the petitioner taking a house on rent at Kumbalagodu in the outskirts of Bengaluru.“
Accused gets bail with conditions after 5 years
While taking into consideration previous Supreme Court judgments, undue delay in trial, and custody of 5 years, Justice S Vishwajith Shetty granted bail to Mohan Nayak.
However, the court imposed five conditions on the undertrial, which include furnishing personal bond of ₹1 lakh, regular appearance in trial court hearings, restriction on travel beyond trial court jurisdiction, non-repetition of similar offences and avoidance of witness tampering.
