Police fail to probe murder motive, accused acquitted

S Shyam Prasad | NT

Bengaluru: The Bangalore police have reportedly failed to probe the motive they had attributed to behind a murder case which resulted in the acquittal of the accused.

The police had claimed that the victim had lent the accused Rs.13 lakh and was murdered because the former insisted on it being paid back. However, the police allegedly did not check the bank details of the two and failed to establish the motive behind the reported murder. The main accused in the case Mallikarjunagouda is from Dharwad. The second accused is Sadar Shankar who the police alleged was the accomplice. They were accused in the murder of one Basayya aka Iranna.

The deceased went missing on July 21, 2015. His body was later found stuffed in a gunny bag and thrown into the Chandika river. The police after investigation and concluded that Basayya had lent Rs.13,00,000 to Mallikarjunagouda and the former was demanding its repayment. To avoid paying it Mallikarjunagouda reportedly killed Basayya.

The Trial Court had sentenced Mallikarjunagouda to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs.3,00,000 on him. He was also sentenced to another three years for causing disappearance of evidence. The fine amount was to be given to the parents of the victim. Sadar Shankar, the second accused, was however acquitted by the Trial Court.

Mallikarjuna gouda approached the HC challenging his conviction. The State government approached the HC challenging the acquittal of Shankar. The division bench of Justice Suraj Govindaraj and Justice G Basavaraja gave their judgment on December 9, 2022. The HC found that the police had failed to prove that Basayya lent a loan to the accused.

“There is no evidence on record which would indicate firstly, that the deceased had about Rs.13,00,000 and secondly that the deceased handed over Rs.13,00,000 to accused No.1 and thirdly, that the deceased was repeatedly asking for repayment of the money,” the HC said. The police claimed that the deceased had taken a bank loan. But no enquiry was made even regarding the bank.

“There is no follow up made by the Investigating Officer with the bank to source the documents. In the evidence of the Investigating Officer, it is not stated that any attempts have been made in this regard,” the HC said. The Court said that no motive has been established.

“Result of either the witnesses not producing the documents and/or Investigating Officer not discharging its obligation to ascertain the truth, we are left with a situation that there is nothing on record to establish the alleged motive to cause the murder of the deceased as alleged by the prosecution,” the HC said.

Holding that the case against the accused No.1 has not been proved, the HC set aside the sentence imposed on him by the lower court. It also dismissed the appeal of the State seeking conviction of the second accused.

“Accused No.2 who is said to be an accomplice and helper of accused No.1 cannot be held to be guilty of the offence, when accused No.1 himself is not,” the HC said.