SC notice to Karnataka over FIR for ATI dir assault

The Supreme Court has issued a notice to the Karnataka government on a plea to quash a second FIR lodged with regard to the alleged assault of a woman director general of Administrative Training Institute following the suicide of an employee over there in 2014.

A bench of Justices R F Nariman and V Ramasubramanian sought a response from the state government on a petition against the Karnataka High Court's order of July 19, 2019, declining to quash the case.

The court also sought a reply to the plea for a stay of the proceedings initiated in a Mysuru court on the basis of the FIR lodged by Rashmi, former Director-General, Administrative Training Institute.

Senior advocate Yatindra Singh and advocate Sanjay M Nuli contended there can't be two FIRs with regard to the same incident.

In the second FIR, the then-director relied upon the video coverage of the TV channels.

"She has seen video coverage on the day of the incident. Nothing prevented her from having registered a comprehensive complaint on the same day," they said.

The second FIR lodged on October 16, 2014, a day after the incident of the alleged assault was an attempt by the complainant to take a "vengeful action against her predecessor Anita Prasad and all other employees serving under her", the counsel claimed.

One gazetted officer of the ATI, Venkatesh had allegedly committed suicide on October 15, 2014. Friends and relatives of the officer reached the institute blamed the director for the suicide and squatted in front of her car. A gun man of the director lodged an FIR with Nazarbad police station on the same date.

However, a day later, the director herself made a complaint, contending about 30-40 persons in a Tempo Traveller, along with two and three cars entered the institute. They used foul language against her, assaulted her with hand and slippers and had pushed her around, causing injuries and damaging her car as well as a consequence. She got another FIR registered with the same police station.