The High Court of Karnataka on Wednesday asked the State government to initiate action on the inquiry report submitted by senior IPS officer Kamal Pant by December 31, which relates to the police excesses during the agitation over the Mahadayi water dispute at Yamanur village in Dharwad district in July this year.
Justice A.N. Venugopala Gowda passed the order after perusing the inquiry report, which was submitted to the court in a sealed cover by Additional Advocate General A.G. Shivanna.
The government, which had initially claimed that the report was confidential, submitted the report after the court sought to know the contents of the report as it had taken cognisance of police excesses based on the visuals on various television channels.
The court had taken cognisance of the Yamanur incident during the hearing of a petition related to the State Police Complaints Authority (SPCA) through which the court has been monitoring the functioning of the authority and the actions initiated by the State to provide infrastructure to the authority, both at the State and district levels.
Meanwhile, the State has informed the court that a building has been identified on Racecourse Road to house the SPCA to make it easily accessible to the public. The court had earlier observed that the public cannot easily access the SPCA at present housed at the Vikasa Soudha, a high-security zone.
