BJP worker found dead in Anekal: Video clip blames two local leaders; two arrested
Bengaluru: City police have arrested two men in relation to the death of a BJP worker, identified as Praveen Kumar (35), who was found hanging from a tree in Anekal on the outskirts of Bengaluru on Friday.
While Kumar’s death is suspected to be a suicide, a 14-minute-long video clip allegedly made and uploaded by him on social media shows the deceased BJP worker blaming a local BJP leader and others and also requesting social media users to share the clip widely to ensure he gets justice.
Police have said that the body of Kumar, who was a resident of Anekal, was found behind a school on Friday morning. The worker is suspected to have ended his life after 2 am on Friday, when the video clip was uploaded on Facebook, they added.
The officers also said that Kumar, in the video, has accused people of assaulting him on Thursday night over a financial dispute. The BJP worker has named Kiran Gowda, Srinivasa Babu, Harish ‘Gokula Fashion’, Bhaskar Narayanappa, Madhu Gowda, Bhagya, Muniraju Gowda and Saravana as people who threatened to get him caught in a drugs case. He has urged the police to not spare Kiran Gowda at any cost, alleging that Gowda had committed crimes using Instagram and Facebook but he (Kumar) was blamed in the cases.
Anekal Police have registered an FIR for abetment to suicide, based on a complaint filed by Kumar’s father.
Superintendent of Police (Bengaluru Rural) CK Baba has said that two men, Kiran Gowda and Harish, have been arrested in the case. The senior officer added that Praveen Kumar is suspected to have committed suicide following a personal clash with the brother of one of the suspects rather than financial or political reasons.
The FIR states that local BJP leader Srinivasa Babu and another person, Bhagya, had called Kumar on Wednesday and threatened to kill him. On Thursday, they had also called Kumar to a building in Nayakanahalli near Anekal, where they assaulted him.
(Assistance for overcoming suicidal thoughts is available on the state’s health helpline 104, Tele-MANAS 14416.)
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High courts upheld only 8 per cent of death sentences; SC confirms none in recent years: Report
New Delhi (PTI): Highlighting that a high acquittal rate of death row convicts by the Supreme Court and high courts demonstrates a pattern of "erroneous or unjustified convictions", a study of 10 years of death penalty data has revealed that the top court did not confirm any death sentences in recent years.
The study by Square Circle Clinic, a criminal laws advocacy group with the NALSAR University of Law in Hyderabad, found that an overwhelming majority of death sentences imposed by trial courts did not withstand scrutiny at higher judicial levels. Acquittals far outnumbered confirmations at both the high courts and Supreme Court levels.
According to the report, the trial courts across India awarded 1,310 death sentences in 822 cases between 2016 and 2025. High courts considered 842 of these sentences in confirmation proceedings but upheld only 70 or 8.31 per cent.
In contrast, 258 death sentences (30.64 per cent) resulted in acquittals. The study noted that the acquittal rate at the high court level was nearly four times the confirmation rate.
Data showed that of the 70 death sentences confirmed by high courts, the Supreme Court decided 38 and did not uphold a single one. The apex court has confirmed no death sentences between 2023 and 2025.
"Wrongful or erroneous or unjustified convictions, then, are not random or freak accidents in the Indian criminal justice system. The data indicates they are a persistent and serious systemic concern," the report said.
Over the last decade, high courts adjudicated 1,085 death sentences in 647 cases, confirming only 106 (9.77 per cent). During this period, 326 persons in 191 cases, were acquitted.
The report attributed low confirmation rates to the appellate judiciary’s concerns regarding failures in due process. "This coincides with increased Supreme Court scrutiny of safeguards at the sentencing stage," the report said.
Of the 153 death sentences decided by the apex court over the last decade, the accused were acquitted in 38 cases. In 2025 alone, high courts overturned death sentences into acquittals in 22 out of 85 cases (over 25 per cent). The same year, Supreme Court acquitted accused persons in more than half of the death penalty cases it decided (10 out of 19), the report said.
The study highlighted that 364 persons who were ultimately acquitted "should not even have been convicted and unjustifiably suffered the trauma of death row". It added that such failures extend beyond adjudication and reflect serious lapses in investigation and prosecution.
The question of remedies for wrongful convictions remains pending before the Supreme Court. In September 2025, three persons acquitted by the apex court filed writ petitions seeking compensation from the state and argued that their wrongful convictions violated their fundamental right to life and liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution.
"In 2022, the Supreme Court crystallised a sentencing process in Manoj v. State of Madhya Pradesh , and mandated all courts to follow those guidelines before imposing or confirming a death sentence," the report read.
In 2025, the apex court held in Vasanta Sampat Dupare v. Union of India that death penalty sentencing hearings form part of the right to a fair trial and stressed that capital punishment can be imposed only after a constitutionally compliant sentencing process.
"However, even at the high courts whether the process mandated under Manoj is being complied with is in doubt,” the report said.
