SC issues notice to K’taka govt, others on Gauri Lankesh murder case

New Delhi, Jun 29 (UNI) The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notices and sought responses from the Karnataka government and others on a plea filed by filmmaker Kavita Lankesh challenging the bail application of one of the accused in the assassination case of her sister and journalist Gauri Lankesh.
A division bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and Aniruddha Bose observed that the bail application should be decided uninfluenced by a Karnataka High Court verdict that dropped KCOCA, or Karnataka Control of Organised Crimes Act, charges against the accused.
According to the petitioner’s lawyers, Nayak was actively providing shelter to the killers and was involved in “continuous unlawful activity”, as defined within the meaning of KCOCA.
The bench posted the case for further hearing on July 15.
Lankesh, the editor of Kannada weekly newspaper ‘Lankesh Patrike’ known for her strident views against right-wing politics, was killed at her home in Bengaluru by gunmen on September 5, 2017.