Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has reportedly told a delegation of BJP MLAs from Dakshina Kannada and Udupi that there is no provision in law for the State government to order a re-investigation into the rape and murder of Soujanya near Dharmasthala in 2012.
The delegation met the Chief Minister on Monday and submitted a memorandum seeking a re-investigation.
A communique from Mangaluru City North MLA Y. Bharat Shetty said that the Chief Minister told the delegation that he had conveyed to Soujanya’s parents that the State government cannot order a re-investigation as there is no legal provision. The parents can go for an appeal against the judgment of the Special Children’s Court, which acquitted the lone accused Santhosh Rao for lack of evidence, on their own. If not, the CBI which investigated the case can also file an appeal.
It said that the Chief Minister assured the MLAs that since they have submitted a memorandum he (Mr. Siddaramiah) will again seek legal advice on the matter.
In addition to Dr. Shetty, MLAs D. Vedavyasa Kamath, V. Sunil Kumar, Harish Poonja, Bhagirathi Murulya and Suresh Shetty Gurme were part of the delegation.
It may be mentioned here that the BJP had organised a protest in Belthangady on August 27, 2023, pressing for re-investigation into the rape and murder. The next day, the activists of various organisations who held a convention in Belthangady urged the State government to order an investigation by the Special Investigation Team into the rape and murder. The ‘Chalo Belthangady Mahadharanai’ was organised by the Federation of Pro-People Organisations of Dakshina Kannada and the Joint Forum of Progressive Organisations of Karnataka.
Activist Mahesh Shetty Timarodi has been leading protests in several parts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi seeking a re-investigation into the case and justice to the family of Soujanya who was a 17-year-old pre-university student of SDM College, Ujire.
According to the statement records attached to the CBI chargesheet, Soujanya went missing on October 9, 2012, after alighting from a government bus near the Netravathi river bank between 4 p.m. and 4.15 p.m., about 3 km from her residence, while returning from the college. Her father filed a missing complaint at Belthangady police station at about 10.30 p.m. on the same day after the frantic search did not yield any result. It was the next morning when the family and police found the teenager’s body, with clothes torn and undergarments missing, inside a jungle located across a gushing stream in front of Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara Yoga and Nature Cure Hospital at Mannasanka. The news spread, setting off a massive uproar in Belthangady taluk.
