Karnataka: 16 IPS officers including D Roopa transferred in reshuffle of police department
Bengaluru: Four Deputy Commissioners of Police (DCP) in Bengaluru were among the police officers transferred in a routine reshuffle among the IPS (Indian Police Service) brass in Karnataka as announced on Monday. IPS officers MN Anucheth, D Devaraja, Dharmender Kumar Meena, and Harish Pandey are the new DCPs in Bengaluru.
MN Anucheth, the DCP of Whitefield Division, was transferred to the role of DCP Bengaluru Central, replacing Chetan Singh Rathor.
D Devaraja, an officer of the Select List of 2015, will now take charge as the DCP of the Whitefield Division.
Harish Pandey, who was Superintendent of Police (SP) Intelligence Bengaluru until now, has been posted as DCP Bengaluru South.
Rohini Katoch Sepat, DCP Bengaluru South, was transferred to the role of Superintendent of Police, CID (Criminal Investigation Department), Bengaluru.
Nikam Prakash Amrit, who was the SP, CID, Bengaluru until now, will be posted as the SP of Raichur district.
B Ramesh, DCP Bengaluru West, was transferred to the role of Superintendent of Police, CID, Bengaluru.
N Sashi Kumar, DCP Bengaluru North, was transferred to the role of Superintendent of Police, Wireless in Bengaluru. Dharmender Kumar Meena replaced Sashi Kumar as DCP, Bengaluru North.
Meanwhile, Iada Martin Marbaniang was transferred from his role of SP, Kalaburagi, and posted as the SP of Anti-Naxal Force, Karkala, Udupi.
Suman D Pannekar, a 2013-batch officer, will take charge as Deputy Director, Karnataka Police Academy, Mysuru.
Among officers of the rank of Inspector General, IPS officer D Roopa of 2000-batch, who was posted as Inspector General of Police (IGP), Railways, Bengaluru has been made the IGP and Secretary to Government (PCAS), Home Department. She will replace IPS officer Umesh Kumar.
Umesh Kumar, who was until now PCAS, will be posted as Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), CID, Economic Offences, Bengaluru.
These transfer orders were along expected lines as the order for the transfer of the Bengaluru City Police Commissioner was made on Friday. While senior IPS officer Bhaskar Rao was transferred out from his position as Commissioner of Police for Bengaluru City, he was replaced by his 1990-batchmate, Kamal Pant.
Bhaskar Rao has now taken charge of the ADGP Internal Security Division, Bengaluru.
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Actress sexual assault: Court says Prosecution 'miserably' failed to prove conspiracy against Dileep
Kochi (PTI): The prosecution had "miserably" failed to prove the conspiracy charge against Dileep in the sensational 2017 actress sexual assault case, a local court has observed while citing inconsistencies and lack of sufficient evidence against the Malayalam star.
The full judgement of Ernakulam District and Principal Sessions Court Judge Honey M Varghese was released late on Friday, and has revealed the judge also pointing out at unsustainable arguments put forth by the prosecution.
"The prosecution miserably failed to prove the conspiracy between accused No.1 (Pulsar Suni) and accused No.8 (Dileep) in executing the offence against the victim," the court held.
It examined in detail, the prosecution's allegation that Dileep had hired the prime accused to sexually assault the survivor and record visuals, including close-up footage of a gold ring she was wearing, to establish her identity.
On page 1130 of the judgment, under paragraph 703, the court framed the issue as whether the prosecution's contention that NS Sunil (Pulsar Suni) recorded visuals of the gold ring worn by the victim at the time of the occurrence, so as to clearly disclose her identity, was sustainable.
The prosecution contended Dileep and Suni had planned the recording so that the actress' identity would be unmistakable, with the video of the gold ring intended to convince Dileep that the visuals were genuine.
However, the court noted that this contention was not stated in the first charge sheet and was introduced only in the second one.
As part of this claim, a gold ring was seized after the victim produced it before the police.
The court observed that multiple statements of the victim were recorded from February 18, 2017, following the incident, and that she first raised allegations against Dileep only on June 3, 2017.
Even on that day, nothing was mentioned about filming of the ring as claimed by the prosecution, the court said.
The prosecution failed to explain why the victim did not disclose this fact at the earliest available opportunities.
It further noted that although the victim had viewed the sexual assault visuals twice, she did not mention any specific recording of the gold ring on those occasions, which remained unexplained.
The court also examined the approvers' statements.
One approver told the magistrate that Dileep had instructed Pulsar Suni to record the victim's wedding ring.
The court observed that no such wedding ring was available with her at that time.
During the trial, the approver changed his version, the court said.
The Special Public Prosecutor put a leading question to the approver on whether Dileep had instructed the recording of the ring, after which he deposed that the instruction was to record it to prove the victim's identity.
The court observed that the approver changed his account to corroborate the victim's evidence.
When the same question was put to another approver, he repeated the claim during the trial but admitted he had never stated this fact before the investigating officer.
The court noted that the second approver even went to the extent of claiming Dileep had instructed the execution of the crime as the victim's engagement was over.
This showed that the evidence of the second approver regarding the shooting of the ring was untrue, as her engagement had taken place after the crime.
The court further observed that the visuals themselves clearly revealed the victim's identity and that there was no need to capture images of the ring to establish identity.
In paragraph 887, the court examined the alleged motive behind the crime and noted that in the first charge sheet, the prosecution had claimed that accused persons 1 to 6 had kidnapped the victim with the common intention of capturing nude visuals to extort money by threatening to circulate them and there was no mention about Dileep's role in it.
The court also rejected the prosecution's claim that the accused had been planning the assault on Dileep's instructions since 2013, noting that the allegation was not supported by reliable evidence.
It similarly ruled out the claim that Suni attempted to sexually assault the victim in Goa in January 2017, stating that witness statements showed no such misconduct when he served as the driver of the vehicle used by the actress there.
The court also discussed various controversies that followed Dileep's arrest and the evidence relied upon by the prosecution, ultimately finding that the case had not been proved.
Pronouning its verdict on the sensational case on December 8, the court acquitted Dileep and three others.
Later, the court sentenced six accused, including the prime accused Suni, to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment.
The assault on the multilingual actress, after the accused allegedly forced their way into her car and held it under their control for two hours on February 17, 2017, had shocked Kerala.
Pulsar Suni sexually assaulted the actress and video recorded the act with the help of the other convicted persons in the moving car.
