Gauri Lankesh, Kalburgi murder trial: Families welcome formation of special court

It has been six years since Gauri Lankesh's murder. In her murder case, the accused have been arrested and a chargesheet of more than 10,000 pages has been submitted. However, the culprits are yet to be punished, due to the slow pace of the ongoing trial. This delay prompted writers, thinkers, journalists and activists to demand that the government should hand over Gauri and Kalaburgi's murder cases to a special court.

Also, last week, Gauri's sister Kavita Lankesh and MM Kalaburgi's wife Umadevi met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and drew his attention to the trial delay.

Two murder trials

Moreover, the ballistics report issued by the Karnataka Forensic Science Laboratory on September 13 had said that Gauri was killed by the same gun used to kill the Kannada scholar MM Kalaburgi in 2015. For that reason, steps are now being taken to establish a special court to handle their murder trials together.

Both these murder cases took place during Siddaramaiah's first term as Chief Minister. He constituted an SIT to investigate the two cases and after an intensive probe, the SIT was successful in arresting the accused who alleged that a Hindu fundamentalist multi-state network was behind the murder of the two intellectuals.

Seventeen of the total 18 accused have been arrested in connection with Gauri's murder. Another accused Vikas Patil is absconding. After one year, the SIT officers who investigated the case filed a chargesheet of over 10,000 pages with more than 500 witnesses and more than 1,000 pieces of evidence in the 1st Sessions Court of Bangalore.

The trial started on June 2022 and only 93 witnesses were examined. However, there are 520 witnesses and 1,200 pieces of evidence in the chargesheet. Two hundred of these witnesses have been dropped. It will take around three to four years to complete the trial with the remaining 320 witnesses. However, six years have already passed.

In that background, the families had urged the Karnataka government to form a special court to hear these two cases considering the trial's slow pace and the large number of witnesses to be tried.

Seeking justice

Gauri's sister, film director Kavitha Lankesh, said, "I met CM Siddaramaiah last week and submitted a request letter to establish a special court. It is a matter of happiness that Siddaramaiah has responded to our demand. The trial was getting delayed as the sessions court conduct hearings only five days a week. Moreover, these hearings are held only for two-three hours a day. Now, if the trial is completed in one year by the special court, Gauri will get justice," she said.

Senior journalist Shivsunder, who was close to Gauri, also spoke to The Federal about this new development. He said that the government has now responded to one of their demands and ordered the formation of a special court. They hope to make another demand, asking the government to appoint a single judge for this special court until the trial ends.

"This is because three judges were changed in the last three years and this has led to a delay in getting justice. If only one judge is appointed, there is a possibility that the verdict will come in a matter of one or two years," he said.