The Karnataka High Court dismissed the bail plea of an accused in the Gauri Lankesh murder case on Friday, October 21. The accused, Rishikesh Devdikar, had sought default bail on the grounds that no charge sheet had been filed against him even after 90 days of arrest. A Maharashtra native, he had been arrested in January 2020.
Under the provisions of section 167(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code, a person cannot be detained beyond 90 days without filing a charge sheet in cases “where the investigation relates to an offence punishable with death, imprisonment for life or imprisonment for a term of not less than ten years”, and an accused is eligible for ‘statutory/default bail’ under these circumstances. Rishikesh had earlier moved the special court with a similar plea, claiming that he had become eligible for default bail on April 4, 2020, on completion of 90 days. The court had rejected this plea.
The government pleader, however, informed the court that a charge sheet had been filed against Rishikesh before he was taken into custody. His plea for default bail does not hence hold ground. The accused had been absconding after the crime until his arrest from Jharkhand’s Dhanbad in 2020. He has been accused of planning and recruiting people involved in the murder of Gauri Lankesh. He is believed to be one of the key figures, who allegedly conceptualised the murder plot along with prime accused Amol Kale.
Justice Suraj Govindraj, who heard the case in the HC, ruled that the accused cannot seek the benefit of CrPC 167 (2) as the charge sheet had been filed prior to his arrest. “In the present case, charge sheet having been laid against the petitioner even prior to the arrest of the petitioner, the petitioner having been arraigned as an accused and charged with certain offence, I am of the considered opinion that the benefit of subsection (2) of Section 167 of CrPc would not arise,” Justice Suraj stated.