Citing delay in the progress of trial, the High Court of Karnataka has granted bail to four more accused persons in the Gauri Lankesh murder case. The editor-activist was shot dead at her residence on September 5, 2017.Those who were granted bail are Bharat Jayawant Kurane, 42, Sudhanva Gondhalekar, 43, Sujith Kumar, 42, and Srikanth Pangarkar, 48, who have been arraigned as accused number 6, 9, 13, and 16 respectively in the charge sheet.Justice S. Vishwajith Shetty passed the order while allowing separate petitions filed by the four accused while granting them bail on similar grounds of delay in progress of trial on which the four other accused persons (accused number 5,7,11 and 17) were given bail earlier.“Undisputedly, petitioners herein were not present at the spot of crime on the date of incident. Accused number 2 [Parashuram Wagmore] and 3 [Ganesh Maskin] are the alleged assailants of deceased Gauri Lankesh. The allegation against the petitioners is about conspiring with the other accused persons and also facilitating the commission of crime by arranging vehicles, fire arms, etc. Almost similar allegations are found even against accused number 5, 7, 11 and 17, who have been granted regular bail by this court,” the judge observed.Totally 18 persons, who were arraigned as accused in the chargesheet, are facing trial in the case. Also, the court noted that the apex court had on August 20, 2024 dismissed the petitions filed by the State government questioning the High Court’s December 2023 order of granting bail to N. Mohan Nayak (accused number 11) on the ground of delay in progress of the trial. 100 more witnessesThe apex court had recorded the statement made on behalf of the State government that “… so far 137 witnesses have been examined by the prosecution, 137 witnesses have been dropped and the prosecution is also likely to drop 150 more witnesses, and now about 100 witnesses are still to be examined.”While noticing that accused Mohan Nayak had cooperated for trial and had not sought adjournment, the apex court had directed the trial court to expedite the case and asked all the parties to cooperate.However, the apex court gave liberty to the prosecution to seek cancellation of his bail if he violated any conditions of the bail or failed to cooperate for further trial and sought unnecessary adjournments. Published – September 16, 2024 08:49 pm IST