CID clears Heggade family in Sowjanya rape-murder case

Submitting its preliminary report in the Sowjanya rape-murder case to the government on Thursday, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has reportedly given a clean chit on the Veerendra Heggade family’s alleged involvement in the crime.

The report named one Santosh Rao as the person who committed the crime.

Bipin Gopalakrishna, DG, CID, confirmed to Deccan Herald that the agency had completed the investigation and submitted a 15-page report to the chief secretary on Thursday. He said that the final report would be submitted to the court within a couple of weeks. Some documentation was pending, he said but declined to share the findings. Sources in the CID said the investigation could not find any evidence against Veerendra Heggade family of Dharmasthala as alleged by the victim’s family.

Four youth

Sowjanya, a 17-year-old pre-university course student of SDM College, Ujjire in Dakshina Kannada, was raped and killed on her way back home from college on  October 9, 2012. The Belthangady police had arrested one Santosh Rao in connection with the case.
However, the local people and the victim’s family alleged that four youth from Dharmasthala, including Nischal Jain, son of Harshendra Kumar, the younger brother of Veerendra Heggade, was involved in the case. Three others against whom allegations were levelled are Dheeraj Kella, Uday Jain and Mallik Jain.

CID interrogated Kella-Jain trio recently. Harshendra Kumar appeared before the CID and presented records, including passport, visa and bank transactions of his son (Nischal Jain) in the United States of America, to show that he was not in the country when the rape and murder was committed. CID officials have found merit in the evidence and given a clean chit to Nischal.

Location verified

CID officials have also verified the location of the Kella-Jain trio on the day of the crime from their mobile phone records and have found that they were also not present at the time of the crime.

A senior official said the case was politicised and investigation cannot be carried out based on allegations and hunches. He said that many who have been levelling allegations against the four accused youth have not come forward with any proof.

On the contrary, the officer said, there was an eyewitness account of the arrested, Santosh Rao, taking the victim into the woods when she was standing by the roadside with an umbrella to protect herself from rain.

The officer said that the medical reports, eyewitness and circumstantial evidence all pointed towards Santosh Rao as the perpetrator of the crime. A senior official also denied reports that Santosh Rao was mentally unsound. He said a professional psychiatrist from Nimhans had medically examined him and certified that he was not mentally unsound.

He, however, added that Santosh Rao was suffering from a condition called phimosis and was unable to complete the sexual act, which left him frustrated and led him to sexually abuse the girl.

Will approach SC

Unhappy with the CID report, Sowjanya’s mother Kusumavathi has said they would approach the Supreme Court if the State government fails to refer the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

“We have no confidence in the CID investigation. We want the CBI to probe my daughter’s rape and murder. We will go to SC if the State government does not heed our pleas,” she said.

Meanwhile, Belthangady MLA Vasantha Bangera too rubbished the report submitted by the CID and demanded that the government refer the case to the CBI.