The woman who filed a complaint against BJP leader and former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, accusing him of sexually assaulting her 17-year-old daughter at his residence in Dollars Colony, died at a private hospital in Hulimavu in Bengaluru on Sunday (May 26).
According to sources in the police department, the 53-year-old woman visited a private hospital on May 26 night after she experienced breathing problems. The source said she died at the hospital after failing to respond to the treatment. Sources in the police department said that, according to the hospital, the woman was suffering from lung cancer.
She was accompanied to the hospital by her daughter, who is the victim in the POCSO case. The 17-year-old girl had messaged one of the witnesses in the POCSO case saying her mother was in hospital at around 9.21 p.m. She later texted saying her mother was no more.
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Activists from Akhila Bharata Janawadi Mahila Sanghatane (ABJMS), who were assisting the woman in her pursuit of the case, are demanding autopsy of the body, while the police have called it a death due to natural causes, citing the doctors. The complainant was scheduled to meet an advocate on May 27 to seek legal guidance.
The 53-year-old had filed a complaint at Sadashivanagar police station on March 14 against Mr. Yediyurappa and the State government had transferred the case to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) the next day. The CID, which is currently probing the case, has so far recorded the statements of the survivor and the mother under Section 164 of the CrPC.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), South East Division, C.K. Baba, told The Hindu, “According to a doctor who treated her, she had a tumour in her lungs due to which she experienced breathlessness. The woman died as she did not respond to the treatment. In about 45 minutes after she was admitted, the woman breathed her last.”
Women’s organisation demands post-mortem
Gowramma, State Vice President, ABJMS, talking to The Hindu, said as the case is very sensitive, post-mortem of the body should be conducted and the organisation will be filing a complaint at Hulimavu police station. Ms. Gowramma said a member of the JMS was present near the hospital in the morning and the body was taken by the deceased woman’s son and brother.
A cousin of the woman alleged that her son and brother were not on talking terms. “When she was diagnosed with lung cancer, I had to pay the money for her surgery. Her son and brother kept her away when they learnt about the disease,” he said.
The woman is survived by her 17-year-old daughter and a son. In her POCSO complaint, the woman said she and her daughter had visited Mr. Yediyurappa seeking his help, in relation to earlier cases of sexual abuse, cheating and other offences she and her daughter were allegedly victims of. The daughter was allegedly raped by a relative back in 2015.
