SC Orders Re-investigation of Dharmasthala Sowjanya Rape-Murder Case
The 2012 murder case was initially investigated by the Karnataka CID and later the CBI, after the lone accused was acquitted by the CBI court in 2023
New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India on September 21, Monday, ordered a re-investigation of the 2012 Sowjanya Rape-Murder case in Dharmasthala of Karnataka.
The top court also ordered that a re-investigation report should be submitted within three months.
The case was initially investigated by the Karnataka CID and later the CBI, after which Santhosh Rao was the lone accused, and was acquitted by the CBI court in 2023.
The fresh probe into the case was welcomed by Sowjanya’s mother, who has been waging a decade-long legal fight to get justice for her daughter.
The case pertains to the brutal rape and murder of Sowjanya, a 17-year-old student while going back to home after classes, in Ujire, a small town near Dharmasthala on October 9, 2012.
The case was initially investigated by the Belthangady police and the Karnataka Criminal Investigation Department.
The lone accused Sathosh was acquitted in June 2023, with the CBI Special Court going heavy on the shortcomings by initial investigation by the state police.
Meanwhile, Sowjanya’s mother, Kusumavathy has been maintaining that the police and the investigating agencies are protecting the real culprits by moving the investigation deliberately away from the findings.
The case and its investigation had also shed light onto mass burials and multiple unsolved killings in the Kannada town of Dharmasthala.