A police sub-inspector has been suspended while three members of his team are facing a departmental inquiry after an accused in a cheating and forgery case allegedly committed suicide on Friday. The incident took place at the house of the deceased, Siddalingaswamy, at Vidyaranyapura when the police had escorted him to recover documents related to the fraud.
Following the incident, Police Commissioner Kamal Pant suspended police sub-inspector Manjunath Kattimani, who was heading the investigation, and ordered an inquiry against head constables Ravi Kumar and Mrutyunjaya, and constable Umesh. “Action will be initiated against them based on the findings of the inquiry,” said a senior police official.
He added that the incident was captured on CCTV cameras installed in the building. “Since the incident amounts to custodial death, the case has been handed over to the CID,” the official added.
Siddalingaswamy, 63, hailed from Malavalli in Mandya district, and worked as a real estate agent in Bengaluru. He was arrested on February 26 based on a complaint that he cheated a person of several lakhs after promising a site allotted by the Bangalore Development Authority.
The four police personnel escorted Siddalingaswamy to his house on Friday to recover documents pertaining to the case. “The accused reportedly pushed them out of the kitchen and jumped through an open window on the third floor of the building. He crashed on the scooter parked outside the building and died owing to severe head injuries,” the senior police official added.
The police team took him in a car to a hospital in the area where the doctor declared him dead on arrival.
