After woman who filed Pocso case against B S Yediyurappa dies, advocate says she was relentless in pursuit of justice for daughter

The woman met Yediyurappa on February 2 this year to rally support for her daughter but filed a complaint against him on March 14 under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act alleging that he had touched her daughter inappropriately. Yediyurappa has denied the allegations.

“She did not buckle under intense pressure from the very powerful people against whom she filed a case. There was a lot of pressure on her but she stood firm,” said an advocate who was helping the single mother and daughter pursue the Pocso case.

Although she was accused of being cantankerous and filing complaints against as many as 53 state officials, her lawyer said that all complaints she filed were in pursuit of justice for the case she filed in 2015. “They were not isolated cases. She felt that officials had not taken her seriously,” the advocate said.

In August 2017, during trial, the woman testified in court about the attack on her child by a relative from her now estranged husband’s side. In March 2018, she was cross-examined by the defence counsel.

“She felt that the trial was not going well and that the evidence may have been compromised. So she began visiting police and government officials seeking support for a special investigation in the case,” said a human rights advocate who was in touch with the woman and her daughter since the March 2024 Pocso case.

On March 20, the woman and her daughter went to court and provided a statement before a magistrate about the incident where her daughter was allegedly harassed by Yediyurappa. After recording the statement, the woman had complained to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) that there were some discrepancies in the process.

A day ahead of the recording of the statement, Yediyurappa, who has refuted the allegations and said that he had helped the mother and daughter in the past, had obtained an ex-parte court order prohibiting defamatory media reporting on the case.

The CID, which is investigating the case, has obtained Yediyurappa’s voice samples for comparison with voices on a video recording done by the woman on the day of the alleged incident. Yediyurappa appeared before CID investigators on April 12 to provide the voice samples, sources said.

“Around one or one-and-a-half months ago, they came to my house seeking help. After listening to her, I called city Police Commissioner B Dayananda over the phone seeking to address her problem. Later, they spoke against me and I then suspected there was some health problem with her,” Yediyurappa had said in a reaction to the FIR in March this year.

Groups like the Janavadi Mahila Sangathan supported the single mother in her legal fight. She reportedly told advocates and others who rallied behind her that she would consider writing to higher judicial officers seeking justice for her daughter. She was due to consult a senior human rights advocate on Monday evening and a meeting had been scheduled but she passed away on Sunday, said a senior journalist who had been communicating with the woman to help her seek justice.

The teenage daughter of the woman is now being looked after by relatives on her mother’s side, said an advocate who has been in touch with the family.