Two key accused in the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh were felicitated by right-wing groups in the Vijayapura region of Karnataka on Saturday.
Parashuram Waghmore, 33, the alleged shooter of the journalist, and co-accused Manohar Edave, 40, a recruiter for the right-wing crime syndicate accused in the murder, who hailed from Vijayapura, were ordered to be released on bail on October 10 by a special court along with another accused, Rajesh Bangera, 52.
The felicitation event for the two people from Vijayapura in north Karnataka was held by right-wing groups Sri Rama Sene and other pro-Hindutva outfits, and photos and videos of the event went viral on Sunday.
Gauri Lankesh, 55, an outspoken critic of Hindutva politics of the Sangh Parivar and its ideological affiliates, was shot dead on September 5, 2017, outside her residence in Bengaluru.
A Karnataka Police SIT arrested 17 people linked to the radical Hindutva group Sanatan Sanstha and other outfits for the murder in 2018. Eleven of the 17 accused have been granted bail to date.
“Office is directed to take necessary bonds from A-2, A-8, and A-14 and their sureties as per order dated 09.10.2024. Intimate jail authority to release A-2 (Waghmore), A-8 (Bangera), and A-14 (Edave) forthwith if they are not required for any other case. Office is directed to send release intimation even through e-mail,” a special court for organised crime cases ruled on October 10 after granting bail on October 9 to Waghmore, Bangera, and Edave.
A request by the three to travel to their “native places” was also granted by the special court on October 10.
When the Vijayapura duo reached their “native place,” they offered prayers at the Kalika temple and were garlanded by members of right-wing groups. They also paid tribute to the statue of Shivaji at Shivaji Circle in the town by garlanding it.
This is not the first time that accused persons in the Gauri Lankesh murder case have been felicitated by pro-Hindutva outfits or BJP leaders in Karnataka.
In August this year, former BJP MP Pratap Simha visited the residence of K T Naveen Kumar (A-17) in the Mandya region of south Karnataka and felicitated him.
Since the Supreme Court on August 20, 2024, upheld the grant of bail by the Karnataka High Court to Mohan Nayak, an alleged logistics provider and one of the 17 accused in the murder of Gauri Lankesh, the courts in Karnataka have granted bail to 10 more accused, citing a delay in the conduct of the trial in the case.
As many as six accused, including the key plotter Amol Kale, a former convenor of the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, an affiliate of the Sanatan Sanstha, who are allegedly involved in executing multiple murders, are still in prison in connection with the Gauri Lankesh case and other cases.
Supreme Court Order in August 2024
On August 20, the Supreme Court dismissed two separate petitions filed by the Karnataka Government and Kavitha Lankesh, the sister of Gauri Lankesh, seeking the cancellation of bail granted in December 2023 to Mohan Nayak.
The accused, Mohan Nayak, was granted bail by the Karnataka High Court on December 7, 2023, citing the delay in the conduct of the trial in the case and the incarceration of Nayak for nearly five years after his arrest in August 2018. Nayak was the first of the 17 accused arrested in the case to be granted bail.
During the hearing in the Supreme Court, the senior counsel appearing for Karnataka informed the Court that 137 of 527 witnesses had been examined by the prosecution, with 137 witnesses being dropped and another 150 likely to be dropped, leaving only about 100 witnesses to be examined in the trial.
“Under the circumstances, we are not inclined to interfere with the impugned orders passed by the High Court. However, it is directed that the trial court shall expeditiously conduct the trial and all the parties shall cooperate with the trial court in concluding the trial,” the apex court bench comprising Justice Bela Trivedi and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma said last month.
Background to the Gauri Lankesh Murder Case
Gauri Lankesh was shot dead outside her home in west Bengaluru on the night of September 5, 2017, by two motorcycle-borne assassins identified later by the SIT as Parashuram Waghmore, 26, a former member of Sri Rama Sene in Vijayapura, and Ganesh Miskin, 27, a right-wing activist from Hubbali.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Karnataka Police has arrested and charged 17 people linked to extremist right-wing Hindutva groups that created a syndicate to carry out killings and attacks on critics – primarily in Karnataka and Maharashtra – between 2013-2018.
The right-wing crime syndicate involved in the Gauri Lankesh murder is also linked to the murders of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar and leftist thinker Govind Pansare in Maharashtra, and scholar M M Kalburgi in Karnataka – prior to the 2018 arrests by the Karnataka SIT.
“The members of this organization targeted persons who they identified to be inimical to their belief and ideology. The members strictly followed the guidelines and principles mentioned in ‘Kshatra Dharma Sadhana,’ a book published by Sanatan Sanstha,” the SIT said after it filed a chargesheet against the accused in the case on November 23, 2018.
Mohan Nayak, Amith Degwekar, H L Suresh, K T Naveen Kumar, Rajesh Bangera, Manohar Edave, Parashuram Waghmore, Vasudev Suryavanshi, Sudhanva Gondhalekar, Srikanth Pangarkar, and Sujith Kumar are the alleged members of the organised right-wing crime syndicate who have been granted bail so far.
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While Degwekar and Suryavanshi are accused in multiple right-wing-linked extremism cases in Karnataka and Maharashtra, the others are only linked to the Gauri Lankesh murder.
Amol Kale, Ganesh Miskin, Amit Baddi, Bharat Kurne, Sharad Kalaskar, and Rushikesh Devadikar have not yet been granted bail in the Gauri Lankesh case. Kalaskar has been sentenced for the 2013 murder of Narendra Dabholkar by a Maharashtra court.