The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Lokayukta intervenes to help accident victims' relative

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 30, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Lokayukta intervenes to help accident victims' relative

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, MARCH 29. Following orders from the Lokayukta, N. Venkatachala, the autopsy of the bodies of two persons who were killed in a freak accident at a construction site on March 23 was conducted at the Victoria Hospital on Tuesday. The bodies were also handed over to a relative of the accident victims thanks to his intervention.

Mr. Venkatachala, on a surprise visit to the hospital mortuary, asked the former Director-General of Police M.D. Singh, who is Director (Vigilance), Lokayukta, to find out whether the police officer concerned had delayed the autopsy.

Nagesh Nayak (35) and Venkatesh (18) were killed in the accident at a construction site in Chikkajala police station limits. In a complaint filed with the Lokayukta, Laxmi (22) from Andhra Pradesh said she was Nagesh's wife and Venkatesh's sister. She alleged that the Circle Inspector of Devanahalli, K. Chandrashekar, who is the investigating officer, had not allowed the autopsy to be conducted and the bodies to be handed over to her as she had not agreed to give the case to a lawyer recommended by him.

During the visit to the mortuary, Mr. Venkatachala found that the police had not asked the hospital authorities to conduct the autopsy as, according to them, the bodies had not been identified. However, going through police records, he found entries on March 25 giving the identity of the two persons.

"When you have entered the names based on the statement of Laxmi, why have you not allowed the autopsy and handed over the bodies to her," he asked a police constable at the Chikkajala police station.

The constable, who initially said the police were awaiting orders from the Circle Inspector, later showed a requisition for conducting the autopsy, which was submitted to the hospital authorities an hour before the Lokayukta's visit. "The relatives of the deceased have delayed the autopsy because of your visit," he said. The Circle Inspector was not present at the mortuary.

Mr. Venkatachala questioned the presence of two persons from the construction agency and a parking attendant of the City Civil Court near the mortuary.

`No delay'

The Inspector General of Police (Central Range), Shankar Bidari, told The Hindu that the police were not to blame for the delay in handing over the bodies to Laxmi. He said the police had asked Laxmi to submit proof of her relationship with the two deceased. "But she has not come up with any document. The police have to properly identify the person to whom a body is handed over," he said.

(However, Laxmi is learnt to have produced to the Lokayukta insurance policy documents to show that she was Nagesh's wife.)

Mr. Bidari said the police, in the process of identifying the bodies, had placed advertisements in newspapers and distributed handbills.

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