Mysuru student gang-rape case: K'taka Police submit 1,499 page charge sheet

Mysuru (Karnataka) Nov 28 (IANS) The Karnataka Police have submitted 1,499 pages of charge sheet in connection with sensational Mysuru gang-rape case to the local magistrate court against six accused persons, police said on Sunday.

According to police sources, charges against one accused have been dropped as his role was not found in the incident. The police have booked the remaining accused under IPC sections 397, 376B, 120 B, 334, 325 and 326 and others. The police have stated that the court has taken up the case.

The incident had taken place on August 24. The victim after college hours had gone to an isolated place near Chamundi hill with her male friend.

The seven miscreants attacked them, sexually assaulted the woman and demanded Rs 3 lakh ransom from the youth. Later, the victims were admitted to a private hospital. The police had arrested seven persons in this connection from Tamil Nadu.

The incident had created a furore in Karnataka as student organisations came on to the streets demanding the arrest of the culprits.

However, the victim had gone back to her native place and remained incommunicado with the police for a long time. However, the police kept in touch with her and managed to convince her to give a statement before the magistrate. Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai made this statement on the floor of the legislative Assembly while answering a question on the gang-rape incident to Opposition leader Siddaramaiah in September.

"Karnataka Police have taken the case of Mysuru gang-rape with utmost seriousness. The victim had come down to Mysuru from her place and recorded her statement on Wednesday coincidentally. The police continuously kept in touch with her parents and convinced them to record her statement. The government would seek death penalty for the accused," Bommai stated.

Earlier, Siddaramaiah had attacked the ruling BJP, especially state Home Minister Araga Jnanendra, for being callous and as the case was registered after 15 hours of the incident.

Siddaramaiah alleged that the victim suffered injuries and the gynecologist who tested her noticed bleeding from private parts which she (doctor) wrote in her observations. Even then the police waited for the statement of the boy to register the case, he noted. Bommai defended that there was no inordinate delay in registering the case. In the rape case of the law graduate in Manipal in 2013 there was no FIR and the statement for much longer time.

Jnanendra stated, "We are all concerned about our daughters. Even I have a daughter and you (Siddaramaiah) have a daughter. Though she goes to a neighborhood we ask her to be careful. Though, Gandhiji's statement on women freely moving around during midnight is an ideal. The situation on ground is different," he defended his statement by blaming the victim for going out late in the evening.