Apex Court upholds organized crime charges against Gauri Lankesh’s murder accused

The Supreme Court on Thursday, October 21, set aside the Karnataka high court order quashing the charge sheet against an accused in the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh for purported offenses under provisions of the Karnataka Control of Organised Crimes Act (KCOCA). A bench headed by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar allowed the pleas filed by the state and Gauri Lankesh’s sister Kavitha challenging the high court verdict on April 22 this year. The high court had quashed August 14, 2018, order of the police authority granting approval to invoke KCOCA for investigation against Mohan Nayak. Lankesh was shot dead on the night of September 5, 2017, from close range near her house in Rajarajeshwari Nagar in Bengaluru. After Kavitha Lankesh’s plea on June 10, filed in her capacity as the original complainant in the case, the Karnataka government had on July 26 also appealed against the High Court order. The 90-day limitation period for filing SLPs in criminal matters in the Supreme Court against a high court order ended in this case on July 22. Ms. Kavitha’s appeal before the apex court came after the Karnataka High Court dropped the organized crime charges against Nayak earlier this year, saying he was not engaged in “continuing unlawful activity” to be a part of a gang involved in organized crime. The prosecution had argued that Nayak took a house on rent on the instructions of co-accused Amol Kale in the guise of running an acupressure clinic. The house was, in fact, meant to accommodate the killing crew. Gauri’s assassins had hidden out in the same house after the murder, the prosecution version said. Justice Khanwilkar said the Police Commissioner while giving approval, needed only to focus on whether there was credible information before him about the involvement of an “organized syndicate” behind the crime. He just needed to be prima facie satisfied with it after looking at the material before him. The high court had “completely glossed over the crucial fact” that sanction for the KCOCA charges had come from “the competent authority” (police commissioner) and that the trial court had taken cognizance of the “offense of organized crime committed by the members of organized crime syndicate including the writ petitioner (Nayak) — to which there was no challenge”, the apex court said. “Further, the high court has clearly exceeded its jurisdiction in quashing the charge sheet (against Nayak) for offenses punishable under (various sections) of the 2000 Act.” The KCOCA sections mandate a jail term between five years and a life sentence. Nayak, arrested in July 2018, is at Bangalore central jail. The investigators have linked him to the Sanatan Sanstha and accused him of putting up the alleged killer, Parashuram Waghmare, in the run-up to the murder. Nayak, 53, ran an acupuncture clinic in Kumbalgodu on Bangalore’s outskirts, 12km from Gauri’s home. The court finally clarified that the judgment will not come in the way of the accused seeking any other relief as the consideration was limited to the correctness of prior approval for invoking KCOCA provisions against Nayak.