The Karnataka High Court has refused to grant bail to Mohan Nayak, an accused in the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh. Mohan, an acupuncturist at Mundadka in Dakshina Kannada district, will continue to be lodged at Bengaluru Central Prison. 

Justice BA Patil hearing the case observed that there was enough material against the accused to suggest that he was an active part of the crime and not peripheral to it as he claimed. 

He has been accused of providing SIM cards and making arrangements for a rented house in Bengaluru where the suspects stayed before killing Gauri Lankesh in September 2017 in front of her residence at RR Nagar in Bengaluru. He later gave up the premises after the murder, reported The Hindu. 

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case had said that the suspects on-ground to execute the murder of Gauri Lankesh were lodged at a house at Kumbagodu, around 15 km from Gauri Lankesh's residence. This house was given out by Mohan to the suspects as they planned the murder. 

Mohan is the 11th accused in the case and was arrested in July 2018 by the SIT probing the case. He had claimed that there was no concrete evidence linking him to the crime and that he had no history of being involved in criminal activities. 

Mohan has also been linked to the Sanathan Sanstha and is facing charges under section 302 (murder), 120-B, 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 114 (abettor present when the crime is committed), 118 (concealing design to commit offence), read with section 35 of IPC, section 3 of Karnataka Control of Organized Crimes Act (KCOCA) and sections 3 and 25 of the Arms Act, as per the Times of India.