On Tuesday, the Supreme Court after hearing a Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by filmmaker Kavitha Lankesh issued a notice to Karnataka Government and others. In the SLP, Kavitha has challenged a judgement of the Karnataka High Court quashing charges under Karnataka Control of Organized Crimes Act (KCOCA) against one of the accused, Mohan Nayak, in the Gauri Lankesh murder case, the news agency ANI reported.
Justice AM Khanwilkar headed a three-judge bench of the Apex Court. Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Aniruddha Bose were the other two judges. The bench issued a notice to the government of Karnataka, on hearing the deceased journalist Gauri Lankesh’s sister’s SLP. Gauri Lankesh, the renowned journalist was shot dead outside her house on September 05, 2017 in Bengaluru.
Hufeza Ahmadi, a Senior Lawyer, appeared for Kavita and submitted the Petition in the Supreme Court. The Petition said that Mohan Nayak, accused number six in the case, was relying on the impugned judgment of the Karnataka High Court in order to seek bail.
The Apex Court observed that decision on the bail application of accused should be free of any influence by impugned judgment. Kavitha also moved Supreme Court against the suggestion to club the investigation in to Gauri’s murder case being handed over to the CBI after clubbing it with that of the writer MM Kalburgi, and the rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare.
Kavitha in her SLP, has also submitted that the Karnataka High Court has erred in its order by “not examining the scheme of Section 24 KCOCA which states that prior approval ought not to be granted by any officer below the rank of Additional Director General of Police which has been duly complied with in the present case”.