Gauri Lankesh Murder: Supreme Court Restores KCOCA Charges Against Accused

The petition alleged that Nayak was actively involved in providing shelter to Gauri Lankesh's killers prior to and after the brutal incident.

(Photo: Gauri Lankesh/Facebook)

The Supreme Court on Thursday restored the charges under the Karnataka Control of Organised Crimes Act (KCOCA) against one of the accused, Mohan Nayak, in the Gauri Lankesh assassination case.

The Bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar heard the appeal filed by Lankesh's sister, Kavita Lankesh on Thursday.

The petition alleged that Nayak was actively involved in providing shelter to Lankesh's killers prior to and after the brutal incident. The appeal pointed out that the High Court failed to examine the scheme of Section 24 of the KCOCA, which states that no Special Court shall take cognizance of any offence under the Act without the previous sanction of a police officer not below the rank of Additional Director General of Police.

"You can argue lack of evidence. High Court has quashed the chargesheet itself. This is incorrect and this is in excess of the jurisdiction. It cannot be quashed like this. High Court has not analysed the chargesheet, then we have to say High Court has not dealt with the chargesheet correctly," the Bench had said while reserving the judgment, reported Bar and Bench.

However, the order of the Karnataka High Court, delivered on 22 April, 2021, quashed both the order of the Bengaluru Commissioner of Police as well as the supplementary chargesheet.

Therefore, charges under KCOCA were dropped against Nayak.

Nayak’s counsel Basava Prabhu S Patil argued that he had no role to play in the actual commission of the crime and there is no evidence of his association with the other accused.