BENGALURU: In a fresh development in the case involving former RDPR minister KS Eshwarappa, who was facing charges of abetting the suicide of contractor Santhosh Patil from Belagavi, the special court for trial of cases against elected representatives on Thursday directed the investigation officer (IO) to submit the data retrieved from the mobile phones of the deceased contractor and others.
Udupi police had given a clean chit to Eshwarappa, filing a ‘B’ report (closure report) in July, and Patil’s family had approached court, challenging the report. HK Pavan, the advocate representing the complainant, had filed a petition, stating that two mobile phones belonging to Patil, two phones belonging to Vikas, and another phone belonging to Srikanth Giddabasannavar were seized as part of the probe, and were sent to FSL in Madivala.
“In June, FSL had extracted data from these phones and provided the same in hard disks to the IO. But, while submitting the final report (‘B’ report), the hard disks and data extracted were not submitted to court. It is pertinent that the data extracted from the handsets is vital for unearthing the truth. Unless the data provided by FSL is not brought to the cognisance of court, the truth cannot be ascertained,” the advocate stated in the petition.
Allowing the petition, the judge directed the IO to submit the hard disks and adjourned the hearing till January 30. It may be recalled that Patil, who had written to the PM, claiming to have invested Rs 4 crore on building roads in his village in Belagavi.