Bengaluru, 16 July

Karnataka High Court on Tuesday granted bail to three people accused in the murder of activist-journalist Gauri Lankesh, who was shot dead in 2017. Justice S Vishwajith Shetty of the Kalaburagi bench granted bail to Amit Digvekar, KT Naveen Kumar and HL Suresh.

Justice Shetty had reserved orders on the three bail applications on 2 July.

All three accused applied for bail citing the case of co-accused Mohan Nayak, who was granted bail by the High Court in December 2023 on the ground of delay in trial.

Nayak had sought bail on the ground of delay in conclusion of the trial and highlighted that there were a total of 527 chargesheet witnesses in the case, but only 90 had been examined at the time.

The State, however, opposed their bail pleas, citing an order of the Dharawad bench of the high Court that had rejected the bail applications of those accused in the killing of scholar and activist MM Kalaburagi.

Lankesh was shot dead by two motorcycle-borne assassins outside her home in West Bengaluru on the night of 5 September, 2017. —Salar News