Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court on Monday granted conditional bail to four more accused in the Gauri Lankesh murder case, bringing the total number of accused granted bail to eight out of 18. A single-judge bench headed by Justice S Vishwajit Shetty granted bail in response to the plea filed by the four accused, Bharat Jayavant Kurane (Belagavi), Sudhanva Gondalekar (Satara, Maharashtra), Sujith Kumar (Shikaripura, Shivamogga), and Srikanth Pangarkar (Aurangabad, Maharashtra).
Bail was granted on a personal bond of Rs one lakh rupees each and two sureties. According to the bail order, the accused must be present on all days of the trial unless the trial court grants exemption. The petitioner cannot leave the jurisdiction of the trial court unless the court permits it until the case is disposed of. The court also directed the accused from threatening the prosecution witnesses and asked not to be involved in similar charges again.
''The four petitioners were not present at the place where the incident took place. The second accused Parashuram Waghmore and the third accused Ganesh Miskin are accused of murder. There is an allegation against the petitioner of conspiring with the others to murder by supplying the vehicle, arms, etc. Similar allegations were made against Amit Digwekar, HL Suresh, N Mohan Naik and KT Naveen Kumar, who were granted bail recently. Mohan Naik was first granted bail by the High Court. This order has also been upheld by the Supreme Court,'' the court explained in the order.
Gauri Lankesh was shot dead on the night of September 5, 2017, in front of her Bengaluru's Rajarajeshwari Nagar house.
