The Karnataka High Court has declined anticipatory bail to four police personnel in the case of the death of a 55-year-old man under mysterious circumstances when he was in police custody this April.
Justice B.A. Patil passed the order while dismissing the petitions filed by Rakesh, Sub Inspector, Thirumalashettyhalli police station in Bengaluru Rural district, and Muniveerappa M., Sreenivasa M., and Mahadev Reddy, all police personnel attached to the police station.
While the accused claim that Munikullappa, who was detained in a theft case, fell into a well when he attempted to escape from custody, his wife, Dhanalakshmi, alleged in her complaint that he was tortured.
The court, from the postmortem report, noted that there were 16 serious injuries on the body and held that it was difficult to accept that the victim jumped into the well to escape from custody as he would have found different ways if he really wanted to escape. Moreover, the court noted that the police did not make any effort to save the victim as it was family members who removed the victim from the well and admitted him to hospital, where he died.
