CBI files appeal before HC against acquittal of accused in Soujanya murder case
Bengaluru: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed an appeal in the High Court of Karnataka against the acquittal of the accused in the rape and murder of a 17-year-old student in Dharmasthala by a lower court in July this year.
Soujanya, a student of SDM College in Ujire near Dharmasthala, was murdered on October 9, 2012.
The CBI had taken over the investigation and filed a charge sheet in 2015. Santhosh Rao, who spent six years in jail as an undertrial was released following the special CBI court verdict. The appeal is yet to be listed before a HC bench for hearing. The CBI had 60 days to file the appeal.
Earlier in September, the HC had refused to entertain a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking reinvestigation in the case. The HC had observed while rejecting the PIL that appeal against the acquittal should be filed by the investigating agency or the parents of the victim. The petitioners were allowed to withdraw their PIL. The victim's father had also filed a petition before that in 2018 seeking reinvestigation which was rejected by the HC in 2021.
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PM Modi, RSS strengthening wall in path of SCs, STs, OBCs: Rahul Gandhi
New Delhi (PTI): Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the RSS were strengthening the wall standing in the path of Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs, even as he acknowledged that the UPA took steps to weaken that wall but not to the extent it should have.
Addressing the 'Samvidhan Rakshak Abhiyaan', Gandhi also referred to the function held on Constitution Day in Parliament and said that it is his guarantee, that "Modi has not read" the Constitution.
"If PM Modi would have read this book then what he does daily, he would not do it," Gandhi said, displaying a copy of the Constitution of India.
Gandhi said the country's whole system is pitted against Dalits, Adivasis and backward class people.
He said a wall obstructs the path of Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs and Modi and the RSS are strengthening that wall by "adding cement to it".
"Slowly the wall (obstructing the path of SCs, STs, OBCs) is getting strengthened. Earlier, the UPA government gave MGNREGA, the land acquisition act, the right to food...those were ways to weaken that wall. Today, when I look back, I can say the UPA government did not weaken the wall to the extent it should have, it did not do it as strongly as it should have," Gandhi said.
"However, we used to make efforts to weaken that wall but they (the BJP) are strengthening that wall by adding concrete," the former Congress president said.
Gandhi said a caste survey being carried out in Telangana is a historic step and the Congress will do the same wherever it comes to power.
