BANGALORE : The State Human Rights Commission on Wednesday afternoon rescued 66-year-old Mohan, father-in-law of Madan, one of the accused in the murder of rowdy Nakhra Babu on Sunday.
Mohan is the second person to be rescued by SHRC. On Tuesday, SHRC rescued Suresh, older brother of Nanjunda, another accused in the same case.
Mohan was picked up by the Central Crime Branch from Chikmagalur district and was detained for three days. According to Meera Saxena, chairperson, SHRC, this is the third incident of illegal detention that has come to their notice in this case alone.
“We have informed Prashanth Kumar Thakur, IGP, Karnataka SHRC, who has taken up the issue with Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Hemant Nimbalkar,” Saxena said.
Sanjeev Kumar, Mohan’s nephew, who filed a complaint with SHRC, said, “Our biggest worry was Mohan’s health. He recently underwent a heart surgery and has hypertension too. We tried contacting the CCB, but till we complained to the SHRC, no one bothered,” Kumar said. CCB refused to let Mohan go unless Madan’s whereabouts were revealed, he said.
Another complaint came from Jyothi, wife of Manjunath, a classmate of the main accused Nanjunda. He was picked up from his house in Madivala by the CCB on Monday. According to Jyothi, “My husband knew Nanjunda as he was his classmate. But we do not know his whereabouts. Initially, my husband was kept in Madivala station but was later shifted to Koramangala. On Wednesday, they booked him under section 109 of the IPC,” Jyothi said.
However, even after he was brought before the magistrate, both Manjunath and Jyothi were not allowed to leave Madiwala station and were asked to wait till higher officials arrived. (They were at the station at 11.30 pm.)
They are Harbouring Criminals: CCB
When contacted, Nimbalkar said, “We have credible information that not only are they harbouring criminals but also know where they are hiding.”
He said, “We have not detained anybody illegally but had picked up persons for questioning. They were released within two or three hours.”
Four Held
According to senior police officials, four members of the Kavala gang, involved in the murder of Nakhra Babu, were arrested after they surrendered on Wednesday. The four have been identified as James, Kapil, Shama and Ranjit. Based on their leads, a police team has left for Tumkur, sources said.