BENGALURU: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) produced four accused for conspiring to kill writer Prof K.S. Bhagwan and their involvement in the murder of activist and journalist Gauri Lankesh, before the Magistrate on Monday and took them into custody for four more days for further interrogation.
The accused, Sujith Kumar alias Praveen, Amol Kale alias Bhaisaab, Amit Degwekar alias Pradeep Mahajan and Manohar Dundappa Yadave alias Manoj, were produced before the III Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) as their custody ended on Monday. While the SIT arrested Sujith for his involvement in the murder of Gauri, the other three have been taken into custody for allegedly conspiring to kill Prof. Bhagwan.
Assistant public prosecutor Nirmala Rani requested the court to grant four more days of custody of the accused to SIT as the investigation was still underway and the accused were yet to be taken to the places where they practised the shooting. Before the arguments and counter-arguments began, the SIT officials submitted an investigation progress report in a closed envelope.
Objecting strongly to the extension of custody of the accused, defence lawyer N.P. Amrutesh submitted that the accused were illegally detained before showing arrest and they were in police custody for more than the time they were shown to the court. He argued that the Upparpet police got the custody of the accused and the SIT regularly interrogated them for over 15 days before producing them in the court. He said that the maximum period of custody was already over and the accused should not be sent to SIT’s custody.
Mr Amrutesh submitted that the SIT was not letting the accused contact their advocates, which is unconstitutional. He cited the Supreme Court direction in the November 2008 Mumbai terror attack convict Mohammed Ajmal Kasab's case where it was directed that the accused must be provided with the legal assistance.
Ms Rani, however, said that the accused are yet to be taken to Belagavi and Mysuru where the accused allegedly practised shooting. Meanwhile, one of the accused Manohar Yadave alleged mental harassment by the SIT, saying the team woke them up in the middle of the night for questioning and forcefully took their signatures on blank papers.
The court has extended the police custody of the accused till June 14, while directing the police not to subject them to mental harassment.
