Karnataka High Court orders SIT probe into suicide of woman lawyer following police torture

The Karnataka High Court Wednesday rejected the Bengaluru Advocates Association’s demand for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the suicide of a woman-lawyer following allegations of police torture..Justice M Nagaprasanna however, constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising three senior IPS officers from the State to probe into the allegations of torture and determine whether a case of abetment of suicide was made out against the Investigating Officer (IO) accused of having tortured the lawyer.The High Court also dismissed the petition filed by the accused officer, Deputy SP Kanaka Lakshmi BM, seeking quashing of the FIR against her on the charge of abetment of suicide.A detailed order is awaited..The Association had moved the High Court last month seeking a CBI probe, claiming that the deceased was physically assaulted, stripped and tortured by the IO.While the State had denied the allegations of torture, the High Court had taken note of the 13-page death note left behind by the deceased in which she had described the alleged torture meted out to her by the police..The deceased was the eighth accused in an alleged scam pertaining to the siphoning off of over ₹196 crore belonging to the Karnataka Bhovi Development Corporation. She charged under Sections 406 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), for the offences of criminal breach of trust and cheating.She had filed an affidavit before the Court on November 13 alleging that she was being tortured by the woman Investigating Officer (IO) probing the scam.Following such affidavit, Justice Nagaprasanna had ordered that the investigation in the case and all interrogation involving the deceased be videographed. The Court had, at the time, also restrained the police from filing a chargesheet in the case without taking its permission..On November 22, a day after another round of interrogation at the police station, the victim wrote the death note at around 1:30 AM and she died by suicide at around 5 AM, the Court was told.The Investigating Officer was subsequently booked for abetment of suicide under Section 108 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).