Kundapur: Court upholds acquittal of accused in rape and murder case, orders reprobe


Silvester D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur (EP)

Kundapur, Jul 25: The Dharwad bench of the Karnataka high court has acquited a man who was arrested for the rape and murder of a girl at Hiredhomi, Murdeshwar eleven years ago, and ordered reinvestigation into the case. By acquitting the accused, the court upheld the verdict passed by Karwar district court four years ago.

Venkatesh Harikanth, a fisherman, had undergone six years and eight months of imprisonment, and was acquitted four years ago. An appeal in this case was submitted to the high court. Traces of semen and strands of hair of the suspect were found on the hands of the deceased. The evidence was collected and sent to the forensic department, Hyderabad for examination. The DNA of Venkatesh was also examined. The report received eleven months later had stated that the sample of semen did not match that of Venkatesh.

The victim, who was employed as a maid at the house of one Mohammed Sadik was raped, assaulted with a piece of wood and brutally murdered on October 23, 2010. Her parents who grew worried when she did not return home searched for her and found her lifeless body near a shed used to store firewood. The incident that occurred in Bhatkal threatened to turn communal.

Nagappa Naik, the father of the victim, lodged a complaint against nine people belonging to another religion in the FIR. The name of the owner of the house and his son where his daughter was employed were mentioned in it. Nagappa had also mentioned the name of Venkatesh Harikanth in the complaint. Therefore, the police arrested Venkatesh. Rama Sene activists condemned the rape and murder and demanded arrest of the culprits and called for CID investigation.

Venkatesh's wife Mahadevi who knew that her husband was innocent took the matter to court with the help of her brother Balakrishna. With support from Sri Rama Sene founder president Pramod Mutalik and Kundapur-based advocate Ravikiran Murdeshwar, they gave their statements on the case. The advocate argued for Venkatesh in the court.

After the final hearings in the case, the high court bench upheld Venkatesh's acquittal and stated that the family of the victim will get justice only when the real suspects in the case are arrested, has appointed Murdeshwar PSI as the investigating officer and ordered for reinvestigations. The court has ordered first to question seven suspects mentioned in the FIR. The court has asked to collect samples of all of their semen, blood, nails and hair. The court has ordered to question Mohammed Sadik Donya, Kasif Mohammed, Mohammed Nasir, Yasin Shaikh, Neelagiri Siddi Mohammed, Habib Shaikh and Anda Nasir Shaikh.

Mahadevi and Balakrishna said that they have got a new lease of life because of advocate Ravikiran Murdeshwar. Sri Rama Sene district president Jayanth Naik and others visited the office of the advocate on Saturday July 24 to express their gratitude.

Venkatesh alleged that the police tortured him even though he was innocent. "I will not get back the six years and eight months I spent in prison. But the victim who was raped and killed should get justice. The then DySP who tortured and made me undergo imprisonment should be punished," he said.

 

 

  

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Comment on this article

  • KusumaKumari Gunji, Nellore Kodyadka

    Mon, Jul 26 2021

    very sad that this innocent person suffered very much in jail feeling sad like anything

    DisAgree Agree Reply Report Abuse

  • Shankar, Mangaluru

    Sun, Jul 25 2021

    Good that Venkatesh is acquitted. But sad part is that our incompetent police couldn't find the actual culprit inspite of having semen and hair sample for DNA analysis! I think police did not bother to look into any other direction at all. The DNA of the owner of the house where the victim worked should be matched with DNA available from the crime scene.

    DisAgree Agree [21] Reply Report Abuse

  • U.Suresh, Udupi

    Sun, Jul 25 2021

    This shows for sake of money how few police personnel sell their ethics and go to such an extent to involve innocent people.

    DisAgree Agree [11] Reply Report Abuse

  • Monty Dotor, Mangalore

    Sun, Jul 25 2021

    Justice has to be quick.If the accused is not proved guilty, "reverse" punishment for complaintant and investigators should be there,so that the number of ( false) cases in courts go down, and investigations are in a fair and transparent manner. Agencies should see that crime is prevented, rather than start searching for the culprit after the crime.

    DisAgree Agree [11] Reply Report Abuse

  • G M Hegde, Udupi

    Sun, Jul 25 2021

    Shocking how dna samples of all suspects were not collected at that juncture.

    DisAgree Agree [34] Reply Report Abuse

  • Roshan braganza, Mumbai

    Sun, Jul 25 2021

    Can Court give back 11 years of this Innocent man?! , time for judiciary's to make ipc 376 gender neutral , and cover men victims too , every false / fake case has to be treated with sevrere punishment to investigative team , persons who filed FIR...

    DisAgree Agree [33] Reply Report Abuse


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Title: Kundapur: Court upholds acquittal of accused in rape and murder case, orders reprobe



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