Hearing in Naveen's bail petition put off to July 4

BENGALURU: The 70th Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) court on Saturday posted the bail hearing petition of K.T. Naveen Kumar, the first accused arrested in connection with the murder of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh, to July 4 after the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the murder sought time to replace the prosecutor.

As the court proceedings for Naveen’s bail petition began on Saturday, the SIT submitted before the magistrate that the government has issued an order to replace the prosecutor and sought 10 days.

Naveen’s lawyer Vedamurthy, however, argued that the time sought by the SIT was more considering the fact that his client was already in judicial custody for about four months. On hearing both sides, the court posted the next hearing to July 4, giving the SIT four days.

Referring to the SIT’s move to replace the prosecutor when all the arguments have been submitted before the court, Mr Murthy told Deccan Chronicle that the SIT seemed to be thinking that they were losing the ground and had requested for a new prosecutor to either strengthen their ground or to drag the case further, he said.

Naveen, founder of the Hindu Yuva Sene, a right-wing outfit, was arrested for possessing a country-made pistol and live bullets. Later, his links with Gauri’s murder was established by the SIT. His arrest in February this year led to the arrest of five more, including Parashuram Waghmore who is suspected to have pulled the trigger on Gauri, pumping three bullets into her on the night of September 5, 2017, outside her residence in Rajarajeshwari Nagar.