K'taka court convicts three men for gangrape of foreign tourist, murder
Gangavathi (Karnataka) (PTI): A court in Koppal district has convicted all the three accused in the gang rape of two women, including a foreign national, and the killing of a male tourist near Hampi.
The court is scheduled to pronounce the sentence on February 16, after hearing the convicts, police sources said.
The incident occurred in March last year, near the Tungabhadra Left Bank Canal in Sanapura, close to world heritage site Hampi.
According to police, the three who had been convicted had approached the two women survivors, an Israeli tourist and a home stay operator, and three other male tourist friends on the night of March 6, 2025, demanding for money.
When the money was denied, the trio allegedly attacked by pushing three men tourists into the canal and sexually assaulted the two women -- Israeli tourist and the homestay operator.
Two men among those pushed into the canal had managed to swim to safety, while a tourist from Odisha had drowned in the canal.
The court on Friday convicted Mallesh, Sai and Sharanappa for offences, including murder, gang rape, rape, attempt to murder, and robbery, under the relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), police said.
The accused were physically produced before the court, they said.
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Court can reject anticipatory bail but cannot direct accused to surrender: SC
New Delhi (PTI): A court can reject anticipatory bail of an accused but it has no jurisdiction to direct him to surrender before the trial court, the Supreme Court has said.
A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and Ujjal Bhuyan made the observation while hearing a plea filed by a man accused of cheating and forgery.
"If the court wants to reject the anticipatory bail, it may do so, but the court has no jurisdiction to say that the petitioner should now surrender," the bench said.
The Jharkhand High Court had rejected anticipatory bail plea of the accused and asked him to surrender and seek regular bail.
In this case, a complaint had been filed before a magistrate alleging offences under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using forged document) and 120B read with 34 of the IPC, in connection with a land dispute.
The high court had dismissed the second anticipatory bail application of the accused on the ground that no new circumstances were shown.
It had relied on its earlier order rejecting his first anticipatory bail plea, in which the court directed the petitioner to surrender before the trial court and seek regular bail in terms of the decision in Satender Kumar Antil v. CBI.
The top court said such a direction was wholly without jurisdiction and said that if a court chooses to reject anticipatory bail, it may do so, but it cannot compel the accused to surrender.
