MANGALURU: The family members of Sowjanya, who was raped and murdered at Ujire in Belthangady taluk of Dakshina Kannada district in 2012, have decided to approach the State Government for a reinvestigation of the case by the state human rights commission.
Revealing this to reporters here on Friday, Mahesh Shetty Thimarodi, president of Prajaprabhutva Vedike, Belthangady, alleged that investigating agencies such as CoD and CBI had failed in ensuring justice to Sowjanya’s family. The agencies were pressured by “powerful” people to weaken the case.
“Some members of an influential family at Dharmasthala are involved in the case. They destroyed all evidence and some eyewitnesses died. We know that the eyewitnesses were killed. We knew Santhosh Rao is not the main accused. The recent CBI court verdict proved it.
There were many lapses on the part of the investigating teams,” Thimarodi said. “When Sowjanya’s mother went to file a complaint, the Belthangady police did not even bother to register it. The then investigating officer, Yogish Kumar, hushed up the case by destroying evidence. The investigating agencies did not subject some members of the influential family to narco tests nor did they conduct a DNA test,” he alleged.
He lashed out at the CBI for taking 11 years to confirm that Santhosh Rao is not the main accused. “They tried to fix Santhosh but that did not happen,” he said, and dared the members of the influential family to a truth test at Sri Kshetra, Dharmasthala. Sowjanya’s mother Kusumavathi Gowda appealed to seers from the Vokkaliga community to fight the case. Advocate Ambika Nayak was present.