A Bengaluru court granted bail to yet another accused in the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh, reported Bar and Bench.
With the court granting bail to Sharad Bhausaheb Kalaskar, all of the 17 accused persons facing trial in the case are now out. One of the accused is on the run and yet to be arrested.
While granting bail to Kalaskar on January 8, Principal City Civil and Sessions Judge Muralidhara Pai B noted that Kalaskar had been in jail since 2018 and the trial was unlikely to conclude soon.
The court also held that the accused was entitled to bail on the ground of parity. “As already pointed out, as on this day all the accused facing trial in the case except the petitioner are on bail. As such the petitioner is entitled for bail even on the ground of parity,” the court said.
While the prosecution argued that Kalaskar was a repeat offender and could commit another crime, the court noted that the Supreme Court has repeatedly reiterated an accused’s fundamental right to a speedy trial to protect their personal liberty.
Last year in October, a sessions court had granted bail to eight persons accused in the case. Two of the accused, Parashuram Waghmore and Manohar Yadavem, were given a rousing welcome and adorned with garlands by members of some right-wing organisations on their arrival in their hometown of Vijayapura in Karnataka.
Lankesh, 55, had been the editor of Lankesh Patrike, a weekly Kannada tabloud, when she was shot dead outside her home in Bengaluru in 2017. Months before her death, she told Newslaundry about the “rabid hate” she received from the “Hindutva brigade”. Read this piece in Newslaundry on a friend’s last conversation with Gauri hours before her murder.
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