Disposing of an appeal by the State government challenging the trial court’s acquittal of Anupam Mishra, the Division Bench comprising Justices N Ananda and Govindaraju set aside the lower court order and sentenced the accused to life imprisonment.
Baswathi Deb, a BPharma student of M S Ramaiah College of Pharmacy, was admitted to hospital by Mishra on April 28, 2001, stating that she had suffered injuries in a fall. When the Yeshwanthpur police began the probe, the post mortem report revealed Deb was assaulted sexually and tortured before her death.
When questioned, Mishra said she was gang-raped by four men. The case was then entrusted to the Corps of Detectives, who during the probe, found Mishra had murdered his wife after sexually assaulting her.
The couple, who were studying in the same college, had married on December 25, 2000. Soon, Mishra began suspecting Deb of infidelity and asked her to mend her ways. When his suspicion grew stronger, he decided to kill her.
On the day of the murder, April 28, 2001, the Hoysala squad attached to the Yeshwantpur police station spotted him stopping vehicles on the Mattikere main road.
When asked, he said his friend was injured and he needed to take her to hospital. The police helped him get an autorickshaw. At the hospital, Dr Mali Manjunath, declared Deb dead, and the post mortem revealed that she was sexually assaulted before being done to death. Later, an investigation zeroed in on Mishra. However, the trial court exonerated Mishra for lack of evidence.
During the marathon hearing, which went on for two days, government prosecutor N S Sampangiramaiah pointed out that the contention of gang-rape was false, and that on the day of the murder, the victim was present in Mishra’s room.
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