Supreme Court issues notice to all accused in murder of RTI activist Lingaraju
The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the C Govindraju, who unsuccessfully contested elections on JDS ticket from Chamrajpet Assembly constituency in Bengaluru, his ex-BBMP corporator wife Gowramma, and 10 others, on a plea filed by the Karnataka government against their acquittals in the 2012 case of murder of RTI Activist and Journalist Lingaraju.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Ahsanuddin Amanullah sought a response from all the accused after hearing Additional Advocate General Aman Panwar and Advocate V N Raghupathy on behalf of the state government.
The Karnataka government challenged the validity of the High Court's order of November 04, 2022, which had overturned the trial court's order of conviction and sentence of life term awarded to the 12 accused in the case.
Advocate Sanjay M Nuli appeared for the accused.
In its plea, the state government contended prosecution witnesses Smt Umadevi, and Karthik, wife and son of the deceased respectively who were eyewitnesses to the murder.
"But unfortunately all eyewitnesses turned hostile. It appears from the evidence that they got compromised for monetary gain and life threat. Hence, the question arises before the court that when there is proof to show that witnesses were won over whether the earliest version before the police is reliable or the later version before the court given during trial reliable," the state government stated.
Lingaraju was killed in broad daylight, outside his house on November 20, 2012. The prosecution claimed the deceased was hacked to death as he filed a complaint with Lokayukta alleging amassing of disproportionate assets against the corporator leading to a raid at her premises.
The deceased had filed various complaints of corruption against the politicians – Govindraju and Gowramma (husband and wife). On complaints of deceased Lingaraju, the Police had raided the house of the politician duo on November 09, 2012, i.e. 11 days prior to his murder.
As the murder invited public outrage, the Karnataka High Court took suo motu cognisance of the matter and constituted an SIT for investigation and monitoring of the case.
As many as 12 people, including the contract killers, Govindraju and Gowramma were convicted by the Bengaluru Session Court on October 28, 2020, and were sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life.