Bengaluru: A local court on Monday agreed to a detailed medical examination of the three accused in senior journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh's murder case and sent them to 14-days judicial custody till August 20. The accused Ganesh Miskin, Amit Baddi and Rajesh D. Bangera whose police custody ended on Monday, were produced before the III Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court (ACMM) by the SIT. The SIT did not seek an extension of their police custody and the court remanded them in judicial custody.
Advocate N.P. Amrutesh, representing the accused, submitted before the court that the SIT had subjected the trio to torture during the investigation. The accused too broke down before the judge and accused the SIT officers of subjecting them to torture. A SIT official, however, objected to the claims made by the advocate and the accused and submitted before the court that the accused were acting on the instructions received from their advocate. No torture of any sort has been carried out on the accused. The SIT is probing the murder and has arrested 11 people so far. The team has collected crucial information from the accused and is following the leads to solve the case, the officer said. The SIT officials also produced the medical reports of both Miskin and Baddi and told the court that they did not torture any accused. The court later ordered a detailed medical examination of the accused while seeking the report in the next hearing and remanded them in judicial custody, following which they were taken to Parappana Agrahara central prison.
Following the instructions from the court, the police are preparing to consult the doctors at Victoria Hospital for a detailed examination of Miskin and Baddi to establish if the duo were subjected to any kind of torture. Miskin and Baddi, both aged 27, were picked up from their native Hubballi on July 22 on charges of destroying evidence in connection with the case. During the interrogation the SIT grew suspicious that Miskin must be the rider who brought Gauri's suspected shooter Parashuram Waghmore to her house on the evening of September 5, 2017 when she was shot dead outside her residence in RR Nagar, Baddi is suspected to have driven the car in which he helped Miskin and Waghmore escape after committing the murder. The duo also played a prominent role in destroying the evidence, according to officials. The other accused Rajesh D Bangera, who was working as personal assistant to an MLC and is charged for allegedly training Waghmare in using firearms and supplying live bullets to the killers.
