New Delhi, Sep 21 The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Karnataka government to constitute an SIT and conduct fresh investigation into the 2012 rape-murder case of a 17-year-old girl in Dharmasthala, observing that the manner in which the probe was conducted shocks the very conscience of the court.
A bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kumar and Sanjeev Sachdeva directed that fresh investigation shall be concluded within a period of three months and the police report shall be filed before the court concerned in accordance with law.
"Respondent No. 1 – State of Karnataka shall constitute a Special Investigation Team comprising efficient investigators, well conversant with the use of modern investigative technology, headed by a senior police officer of the State.
"No officer who was part of the investigation teams of the Belthangady Police Station, CID or CBI who had been associated with the earlier investigation shall be part of the Special Investigation Team," the bench said.
The bench passed the order on a plea filed by the victim's mother.
The 17-year-old student went missing on October 9, 2012, while returning home from college in Ujire near Dharmasthala, and her body was found the next day with evidence of sexual assault and murder.
The case was investigated by local police, the Karnataka CID, and later the CBI. The sole accused prosecuted, Santhosh Rao, was acquitted by a CBI special court in June 2023 due to lack of evidence.
The top court said Santhosh Rao who has already been tried and acquitted by the sessions court in the subject FIR, shall not be subjected to further investigation or prosecution.
"Nothing stated herein shall be construed as expressing an opinion, even prima facie, on the role of any individual... The Special Investigating Team shall conduct the investigation without being influenced by anything stated on merits in this order," the bench said.
The apex court said in a case where a minor girl of 17 years of age is brutally raped and murdered, the manner in which the investigation had progressed and the manner in which the various investigating agencies conducted the investigation and gathered and evaluated the evidence shocks the very conscience of the court.
"The person who was prosecuted was held to be incapable of committing the offence. Clearly the investigation has been conducted in a manner that causes injustice to the victim.
"The possibility of the real culprit(s) manipulating the investigation cannot be ruled out. Such lax and improper investigation gives premium to the Investigating Officers who failed to do their job correctly and diligently," it said.
The top court said injustice to a person who was falsely charged can always be compensated, however injustice to the victim who was brutally raped and then murdered can never be compensated.
"Society would be failing in its duty if it does not provide justice to the victim of such a heinous crime by conducting a proper investigation and bringing the real culprits to the book," it added.
The apex court said the power of the constitutional courts to direct further investigation or reinvestigation is a dynamic component of its jurisdiction to exercise judicial review.
