Lock-up death: K’taka court awards 7-year jail term to four cops
Bengaluru: The 51st Additional District and Sessions Court also known as the Special Court for the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Karnataka on Wednesday awarded four policemen seven years’ imprisonment in connection with a lock-up death case.
The death was reported from JB Nagar Police Station in Bengaluru in 2016.
The convicted police officers are Head Constable Ejaj Khan and Constables Keshava Murthy, Mohan Ram and Siddappa Bommanahalli.
According to an official statement by the CID, the victim Mahendra Rathod was brought to the police station on suspicion of involvement in a theft case on March 19, 2016.
The investigations have proved that the convicted police officers had assaulted Mahendra Rathod in the lock-up, resulting in the death of the man in the police station.
The CID Investigating Officers had submitted a complaint with the JB Nagar Police Station against the accused cops under the IPC Sections 304 (murder), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt using dangerous weapons), 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt), 330 read with 34 (voluntarily causing hurt, for the purpose of extorting confession from the sufferer).
The CID had further continued the investigation and submitted the charge sheet against the convicted officers on July 18, 2019 with the First ACMM court holding the accused policemen guilty under IPC Sections 304, 324, 330 read with 34.
The court awarded the accused seven years’ imprisonment for the crime under IPC Section 304 (II) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and imposed a Rs 30,000 fine for each accused.
For the crime committed under Section 330 (voluntarily causing hurt, for the purpose of extorting confession from the sufferer) the court has convicted them for five years of imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on each of the cops.
The Special Public Prosecutor Krishnaveni argued for the prosecution and secured the conviction of the accused policemen.