The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Pratibha's last day at home recalled in court

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Saturday, Jan 06, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Pratibha's last day at home recalled in court

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: Pratibha's sister-in-law, S. Shantala, was the last to see her on the night of December 13, 2005, before she was murdered.

Ms. Shantala on Friday related the sequence of events of that night before a Fast Track Court hearing the murder case. Ms. Shantala said she had dinner with Pratibha. At 8.45 p.m. Pratibha's mobile phone rang and the caller said a different driver would pick her up.

At 1.45 a.m., there were about five calls to Pratibha. The caller wanted to know the exact residential address. "Pratibha was perturbed over the repeated calls. She answered his queries and started to get ready," Ms. Shantala said.

At 2 a.m., the caller gave a ring. "Pratibha and I went down together. I saw a white Tata Sumo. The driver seemed a new person and I saw him. My sister-in-law went and sat on the front seat. I waved at her," she said and broke down. The Judge K. Sukanya asked her to calm down.

Ms. Shantala pointed to the accused Shiva Kumar and said that he was the person driving the vehicle. She then went to identify the vehicle in which Pratibha travelled. She came back to the court and informed that the words "Shani Devara Krupe," which she saw on the vehicle taken by Pratibha, were missing.

Ms. Shantala was shown the photographs of the vehicle taken soon after the murder. In that the words were present. The judge then asked Mr. Janardhan to bring the vehicle's owner Renukappa on Monday to the court.

Earlier, B.S. Jagadish, the driver who was supposed to pick Pratibha on December 13, was examined. He said he had to pick up five people, including Pratibha, a resident of Kumaraswamy Layout.

As had been the practice, he gave a ring to Pratibha on her mobile phone. When there was no response he gave another call. "Thinking that Pratibha might be sleeping, I gave a long call to which Pratibha answered." She informed him that she was already on the way to the office in another vehicle.

"Surprised, I asked her to give the mobile phone to the driver."

The driver who did not give out his name told Jagadish that he was the driver of route 405 and had been asked to pick some people from Kumarswamy Layout and Kanakapura Road.

"I made a note against Pratibha's name in trip sheet as `not coming' and proceeded to pick four others. I passed on the message to the travel desk of the company," he said.

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