Karnataka High Court quashes proceedings against Bengaluru top cop, officers

The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday quashed the order passed by a magistrate court directing registration of FIR against Bengaluru city police commissioner Kamal Pant, DCP (Central) M N Anucheth and Cubbon Park police station inspector B Maruti.

The 8th Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Bengaluru City had passed the order on a private complaint which alleged that the officers were responsible for the delay in registering FIR on the complaint filed by a social activist Dinesh Kallahalli against the then minister Ramesh Jarkiholi on March 2, 2021.

The magistrate had passed the order on the private complaint filed by Adarsh R Iyer, co-president of Janaadhikaara Sangharsha Parishath. Justice Sreenivas Harish Kumar quashed the order of the magistrate noting that the complainant had failed to bring it to the notice of the magistrate various developments that had taken place in the case, after social activist Dinesh Kallahalli filed the complaint with the Cubbon Park police. The court said the order of the magistrate was not sustainable in law.

Appearing for the police officers, advocate P Prasanna Kumar submitted that the FIR in the case indeed was registered after the victim woman filed the complaint. He further submitted though the final report is ready in the case the same could not be filed because of the interim order granted by the division bench in a PIL.

Dinesh Kallahalli, an activist, had filed the complaint on March 2 against the then minister Ramesh Jarkiholi accusing the latter of sexual abuse and again filed a revised complaint on March 7. The police commissioner constituted an SIT on March 11 and subsequently FIRs were registered on behalf of Ramesh Jarkiholi at Sadashivanagar police station and the victim woman at Cubbon Park police station.