BHUBANESWAR: In a major embarrassment to Commissionerate Police, Kari Satti Babu alias Satheesh Reddy, who was arrested last year in connection with the sensational burglary at former OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik’s house at IRC village here, has been acquitted by a court here over procedural anomalies.
Pronouncing the verdict on January 30, JMFC-III Karonika Ghose observed that the case suffered from a number of procedural anomalies and the chain of circumstances which would warrant conviction of the accused was not established.
The key reasons cited by the court for the acquittal of Reddy, infamously known as ‘Spider Satish’, are absence of independent witnesses during the seizure of articles from his rented house in Andhra Pradesh, no proper certificate regarding submission of CCTV footage under Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam and non-submission of observational report by the scientific team.
This apart, police had not recorded the confessional statement of the accused or submitted the details of the cases in which Reddy was earlier convicted. Interestingly, the defence counsel claimed Reddy was at his rented accommodation in Bheemilipatnam area in AP and taking care of his paralysed daughter when the theft took place at Patnaik’s house late on January 25 night last year. He came to know that a case had been registered against him only after police arrested him on February 10.
“Taking into consideration the said facts and circumstances, as there is no sufficient evidence on record against the accused Kari Satti Babu, he is found not guilty for the commission of offence under section 313(4)/305(a) of BNS and thereby he is acquitted as per the provision under section 271(1) of BNSS. The accused be set at liberty and his bail bond shall stand cancelled,” the judge ordered.
Interestingly, the cops had stated that they examined over 400 CCTV cameras in Bhubaneswar, Sompeta, Srikakulam and Vizianagaram and verified more than 10,000 mobile phone numbers in multiple states to nab Reddy.