Supreme Court of India
Kusumavati Gowda v. The Government of Karnataka
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What the Court ordered
In view of the above, the appeal is disposed of in the following terms: (i) impugned order dated 30.08.2024 in WP No. 3301 of 2024, in so far as it dismisses the Writ Petition filed by Sri Chandappa Gowda, is set aside and (ii) a denovo investigation be carried out in Cr.No.250/2012 originally registered by the Belthangady Police as per the Complaint dated 09.10.2012 & First Information Report in Crime No.250/2012 dated 09.10.2012 and re-registered as FIR No.RC.2(S)/2014/CBI/SCB/CHENNAI dated 07.03.2014 by CBI, SCB Chennai; and (iii) Respondent No. 1 – State of Karnataka shall constitute a Special Investigation Team comprising efficient investigators, well conversant with the use of modern investigative technology, headed by a senior police officer of the State; and (iv) no officer who was part of the investigation teams of the Belthangady Police Station, CID or CBI who had been associated with the earlier investigation shall be part of the Special Investigation Team; and (v) Since, Santhosh Rao has already been tried and acquitted by the Sessions Court in the subject FIR, he enjoys the protection of Article 20 (2) of the Constitution of India and Section 300 CrPC from being tried or prosecuted a second time, he shall not be subjected to further investigation or prosecution; and (vi) nothing stated herein shall be construed as expressing an opinion, even prima facie, on the role of any individual including Mallik Jain, Deeraj Jain and Uday Jain. The Special Investigating Team shall conduct the investigation without being influenced by anything stated on merits in this order; and (vii) fresh investigation shall be concluded within a period of three months and the police report shall be filed before the court concerned in accordance with law, whereafter the matter shall proceed in accordance with law. The appeal is disposed of in the above terms.
Judgment, 61-62
In brief
The appellant's 17-year-old daughter left for college in Dharmasthala on 09.10.2012 and did not return; the next day her half-naked body was found in bushes near Mannasanka with one hand tied to a tree by her uniform shawl, the post-mortem showing lacerated vulva and vagina with mud particles, a torn hymen and a strangulation mark. Santhosh Rao, a drifter apprehended by two local men and handed to the police, was charged; investigation passed successively from the Belthangady police to the CID and then to the CBI, each concluding that he alone committed the rape and murder and giving a clean chit to three locally influential persons whom the victim's family and villagers had consistently named.…
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