The High Court of Karnataka on Monday sought a report from two additional chief metropolitan magistrates of Bengaluru city on the allegations that they had not followed procedure as per the law after some of the accused persons, arrested in connection with Gauri Lankesh murder case, alleged that they were tortured by the police in their custody.
Justice K.N. Phaneendra passed the order on an affidavit filed by N.P. Amruthesh, an advocate representing one of the accused, Amol Kale, a resident of Chichwad in Pune, Maharashtra.
It has been stated in the affidavit that Kale was produced before the 1st Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) on June 14 as the jurisdictional magistrate, the 3rd Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, was on leave.
The magistrate had initially refused to record Kale’s statement when his advocate requested the magistrate to record it on coming to know that injuries on him were a result of alleged torture, stated the affidavit while pointing out that the police had claimed in the remand application that injuries were self-inflicted by Kale.
Claiming that the magistrate had reluctantly recorded the statement of Kale, who not only showed injuries on the face and but also swellings on his legs, etc., the advocate stated that the 1st ACMM did not take any action as per the law and the guidelines issued by the apex court based the accused person’s statement on police torture for the reason that he was acting as an in-charge magistrate on that day. It has been complained in the affidavit that the 3rd ACMM had on May 31 neglected the statement of two other accused persons on alleged torture by the police. The affidavit was filed during the hearing of the petitions filed by Kale and three other accused persons seeking an inquiry into the alleged torture and demanding payment of compensation.
