The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Court reserves order on illegal detention case against police

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 18, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Court reserves order on illegal detention case against police

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday reserved orders on a petition seeking compensation from the State for the illegal detention of two residents of Bangalore.

The residents, K.S. Venkatesh, a Professor of Sanskrit, and his sister Rukmini, had sought compensation saying they were illegally detained by the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Chamarajpet sub-division, Gangadhar T. Nayak, after they lodged a private complaint with a local court against Sri Visvesha Thirtha swamiji of Pejawar Math and six others.

They had claimed that the police had ransacked their house and tortured them after their complaint against the swamiji. They urged the court to award compensation for wrongful confinement. The State had opposed it saying that Prof. Venkatesh and Rukmini had duped several people and that several cases were pending against them in police stations.

A Division Bench comprising Justice R. Gururajan and Justice Anand Byrareddy had directed the Registrar, High Court, Vigilance, to go through the complaint and file a report.

The Registrar filed a report before the Bench on Monday.

When the matter came up, senior counsel Ravi Verma Kumar took exception to reports appearing in the media about the report and claimed that the State Public Prosecutor (SPP) had briefed presspersons. He submitted that he had not been given a copy of the report or permitted to go through it.

He said it was a fact that his clients had been illegally detained and urged the court to award compensation. He cited several Supreme Court judgments wherein compensation was paid for illegal or wrongful confinement.

Denied

The SPP S. Dore Raju submitted that he had not briefed the media and said his name was being unnecessarily dragged into the issue.

Justice Gururajan, who is heading the Bench, asked the SPP not to drag the swamiji into the case now being heard by the High Court. He said neither the swamiji nor Mr. Yediyurappa was a party here and it was unfair to name them.

The Bench said both the parties should not go to the media when a case was pending in the court. It reserved the petition for orders.

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