BENGALURU: In a relief to ‘Cyanide’ Mohan Kumar who argued his case on his own, the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday rejected the reference made by a Dakshina Kannada trial court confirming the death penalty imposed on him in the case of rape and murder of Leela, aged 32, from Bantwal taluk.
The division bench of Justice Ravi Malimath and Justice John Michael Cunha rejected the referrence and set aside the death penalty imposed by the trial court due to lack of evidence. However, the division bench confirmed that the five years jail term on him as the charges of robbery of jewels from the victim had been proved. The trial court had sent the referrence for confirmation of its judgement dated December 21, 2013.
However, during the arguments in the high court, Mohan Kumar contended that neither post mortem report nor the Forensic Science Lab report confirmed Leela’s death was due to cyanide. Both the reports confirmed the death was due to the consumption of organophosphorous, a pesticide, he claimed. The receptionist of the hotel turned hostile which helped his case.
Mohan Kumar was arrested in 2009, almost five years after rape and murder of Leela. Later on, police filed chargesheeet in this case. Of the 20 cases against Mohan Kumar, the trial court had imposed death penalty in three cases and life sentence in one case. Recently, the HC commuted the death penalty to life in one case and ordered him not to be release untill his death. He is not entitled for remission.
According to prosecution, Mohan Kumar befriended Leela (32), daughter of Babu Mestry of Kodambettu village in Bantwal taluk of Dakshina Kannada district, near a bus stand on BC Road in Bantwal in August 2005 and eventually raped and murdered before stealing her jewellery.
HC slams BBMP over reason for not issuing OC to developer
Bengaluru: The High Court pulled up a Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) joint commissioner for his reason for not issuing an Occupancy Certificate (OC) to a developer. The judge said that the reasons offered had been vague and untenable, adding that the construction had been completed as per the sanctioned plan. Taking serious note of it, Justice Dr Vineet Kothari directed the Joint Commissioner, Mahadevapura Zone of BBMP, to file his own affidavit on Wednesday, assigning facts for not issuing the OC to Vaswani Estates Developers Pvt Ltd. The judge had been dealing with a petition filed by the firm, challenging the order dated May 30, 201. The judge said: “If the BBMP had failed to prevent the encroachments on the road as given in the plan, even then, the petitioner cannot be denied the certificate.”