BENGALURU: Seven policemen have been suspended over the television interviews given by Parashuram Waghmare and Manohar Edave, accused in journalist Gauri Lankesh’s killing, after they were produced in court in September.
Three armed head constables and four armed police constables of the City Armed Reserve police were suspended by the Deputy Commissioner of Police, South (CAR), for dereliction of duty and negligence under Karnataka State Police Disciplinary Proceedings Rule. The order was passed on November 23.
The suspension order, a copy of which is with TNIE, states that armed head constables Gangadharaiah, Srinivas, Chandrukumar (driver) and armed police constables Pundalika, Ramesh KV, Mahesh R and Basavaraju S were, on September 29, in charge of taking Waghmare and his associate, Manohar Edave, and nine others to the city civil additional sessions court.
After their court hearing, Waghmare and Edave spoke to two television channels while they were sitting inside the CAR vehicle, and Waghmare alleged that the SIT sleuths had tortured him for a week and threatened to fix his brothers in other cases if he did not confess. The video of their statement went viral on the social media the next day.
Allowing undertrials to speak to media is against the Karnataka State Police rules.