New Delhi: The Supreme Court has dismissed a plea filed by Kavitha Lankesh, younger sister of journalist Gauri Lankesh who was shot dead in 2017, challenging an order of the Karnataka High Court granting bail to an accused Mohan Nayak.
Apex court directed the trial court to expeditiously conduct the trial in the case
A bench comprising Justice Bela M Trivedi and Justice SC Sharma, while dismissing the plea of Kavitha Lankesh, noted that accused Mohan Nayak has cooperated with the trial court in the proceedings of the case and has not sought any adjournment and said that the State of Karnataka or the complainant shall be at liberty to apply for cancellation of his bail if he does not cooperate or asks for unnecessary adjournment(s) or commits breach of any condition.
State or complainant shall be at liberty to apply for cancellation of bail if accused does not cooperate: Apex court
“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 top court said and added, “It goes without saying that if the respondent — accused — does not cooperate or asks for unnecessary adjournment(s) or commits breach of any condition, the State of Karnataka or the complainant shall be at liberty to apply for cancellation of bail, and if any such application is filed, the same shall be decided on its own merits and in accordance with law.”
What did the Karnataka High Court say while granting bail to accused Mohan Nayak?
The High Court had granted bail to Mohan Nayak, who was the first accused to get bail in the case, taking into consideration that he has been in the custody in the case for the last more than five years and the trial of the may not be completed any time soon. It had further noted that charges were framed in October 2021 and only 90 witnesses out of 527 charge sheet witnesses have been examined in the last more than two years and there are more than 400 charge sheet witnesses who are yet to be examined in the case.
“Even if it is assumed that all the witnesses mentioned in the charge sheet may not be examined in the case, considering the fact that only 90 witnesses have been examined for the last more than two years, it can be safely presumed that any time soon, the trial of the case may not be completed,” the High Court said in the order while granting bail to Mohan Nayak.
