After Supreme Court order, new SIT set up to probe 2012 Karnataka rape-murder

The SIT was constituted three days after the Supreme Court on September 21 ordered a fresh probe into the rape-murder case after the school girl’s family moved a plea against the inconclusive nature of the case registered on October 9, 2012.

What is the case?

The 17-year-old college student was raped and murdered when she was returning home from her college on October 9, 2012. Her parents searched for her after she did not return home from college and her body was found the next day in a wooded area in Dharmasthala.

The local police initially arrested Santhosh Rao, a vagabond who lived in a temporary shelter around 50 metres away from the site where the body was found. The police also claimed that a watch that the victim had worn was found with Rao.

Locals however alleged that Rao was being falsely implicated in the case and that local youths with high connections in the region—especially the Dharmasthala temple authorities –were behind the rape and murder.

Later, the case was handed over to the CID and they also named Rao as the accused. The case was subsequently handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) under pressure from the local community when the Congress was in power between 2013-2018.

Following the CBI probe, Rao was charged with the murder on September 19, 2016.

The family of the victim had its doubts about the outcome of the probe despite the special CBI court in Bengaluru asking the CBI in February 2017 to probe the role of three influential local youths suspected by the family and locals. This order was overturned by the Karnataka High Court in 2021.

On June 16, 2023, a special CBI court acquitted Rao after ruling that the CBI had not produced sufficient evidence to prove a direct link between the accused and the crime. It also recommended action against officials who allegedly botched up the investigation at its earliest stages by causing the loss of evidence that could have led to the finding of the actual perpetrators.

What did the Supreme Court say?

The Supreme Court directed the Karnataka government to constitute an SIT “comprising efficient investigators, well conversant with the use of modern investigative technology, headed by a senior police officer”. It further said that no officer who was part of the previous investigation teams should be a part of the SIT.

The Supreme Court also said that Rao, who “has already been tried and acquitted by the Sessions Court” enjoys the protection of Article 20 (2) of the Constitution of India and Section 300 of the Criminal Procedure Code from being tried or prosecuted a second time and “shall not be subjected to further investigation or prosecution”.

Saying that the SIT should conduct the new investigation without being influenced by the Supreme Court order, it further added that the fresh probe “shall be concluded within a period of three months and the police report shall be filed before the court concerned in accordance with law, whereafter the matter shall proceed in accordance with law”.

The Karnataka government has stated that the SIT will function under the supervision of the state director general and inspector general of police.

A Dharmasthala secret burials allegation

An SIT constituted in 2024 to probe claims by a former Dharmasthala sanitation worker of burying dozens of unidentified bodies in cases of suspicious deaths in the region between the 1995 to 2015 period was seen as part of efforts to overcome the lack of a proper conclusion to the student’s murder probe.

A two week search for the remains of bodies, however, yielded no major results and the sanitation worker was placed under arrest. A few local activists were also accused of propagating the conspiracy theory of secret burials in Dharmasthala.

The Opposition BJP in Karnataka had alleged a conspiracy to malign the Dharmasthala temple authorities through the SIT probe.