Members of the Bar Association took out a protest rally here on Tuesday demanding a CBI probe into what they termed the “disappearance” of Preetham Kumar, a lawyer who has been missing since January 24.
Alleging laxity on the part of the police and involvement of a powerful lobby interested in scuttling the case, the protesters submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner demanding a CBI probe into the case.
President of the association S.P Chengappa said that Mr. Preetham was in love with a girl from a different community and her parents were opposed to the relationship.
Threat calls
Mr. Chengappa claimed that Mr. Preetham had received several threats from the girl's family before his eventual disappearance. Despite the circumstances pointing towards the possible involvement of the girl's family, the police had not conducted a proper interrogation. “We suspect that the district police is under pressure to cover up the case,” he said.
He said the Bar Association as well as Mr. Preetham's family had approached every official, starting from the investigating officers of the Kavoor police station to the Inspector-General of Police (Western Range) and even the Home Minister, but to no avail. The police had tried to pass off an unclaimed body, discovered at Kota in Udupi, as that of Mr. Preetham, he said.
Reacting to the allegations, Superintendent of Police A.S. Rao said circumstantial evidence suggested that the body discovered at Kota was the of Mr. Preetham. “The green trousers and striped shirt, which the parents claimed were worn by Mr. Preetham on the day he left home, were found on the body at Kota as well,” he said. Mr. Rao said that the body had been sent for DNA testing. “We will match the body's DNA with that of the parents. We have not yet been able to collect the DNA samples of Mr. Preetham's parents,” he said.The girl's family members had been interrogated more than once. “Further interrogation will only lead to harassment. But we are not under any political pressure as is being alleged,” Mr. Rao said.
Mr. Chengappa has set a 10-day deadline for the conclusion of investigation, and has warned of Statewide protests if the case was not solved by that time.
