Gauri case: Prosecutor absent, Naveen's bail hearing put off

BENGALURU: The hearing on the bail petition filed by K.T. Naveen Kumar, founder of Hindu Yuva Sene and the first accused arrested in journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh murder case, was posted for Friday after the prosecutor did not turn up in the court on Wednesday.

The SIT on June 30 had sought time for the new prosecutor to take over the case, following which the 70th Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) which is hearing the case had posted the hearing for Wednesday. But the new prosecutor did not turn up and the SIT officials requested the court to post the hearing for July 10.

The magistrate, however, slammed the SIT officials for ‘wasting time’ and said that bail petitions cannot be kept pending for a long time. Meanwhile, Naveen’s lawyer Vedamurthy submitted before the court that his client has been in judicial custody for the last four months and that his bail hearing was intentionally being delayed by the SIT.

But the court gave the SIT two days and posted the hearing for Friday.

Naveen Kumar was arrested for possessing a country-made pistol and live bullets and later his links with the murder of Gauri was established by the SIT. His arrest in February this year led to the arrest of five more, including Parshuram Waghmore who is suspected to have pulled the trigger on Gauri on September 5, 2017, outside her residence in Rajarajeshwari Nagar.