For Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Sadananda Tippannavar, the rape and murder of a woman doctor in Kolkata last week has served as a painful reminder of a similar case more than a decade ago.
Under mounting pressure, the police launched a massive investigation that saw them question thousands of autorickshaw drivers before a crucial lead from a local petrol pump helped them crack the case.
A fateful walk from the library to her room
It was June 20, 2013. The fourth-year medical student had appeared for a few exams in the first half of June and was busy preparing for another exam. After studying at the university library, at around 11.15 pm, she decided to return to her room.
As her room was inside the campus guarded by security, there was no reason for her to worry. But as she started walking on the road, an autorickshaw stopped behind her. Before she could react, two men dragged her inside the vehicle and tried to close her mouth. The student screamed. Security guard Manoj, who was nearby, heard her screams, spotted the autorickshaw, and gave chase but the auto sped away. The student’s purse and umbrella fell on the road. Giving up the chase, Manoj informed the Manipal police.
Tippannavar, who was the police inspector at Manipal police station at the time, recalls that there was a gap of 20 minutes between the incident and the police being informed. “I rushed to Manipal University and went to the room where the young student stayed with her roommate. I gave my contact number to her and formed multiple teams to look for her. Every minute felt like an hour as we were unable to find her,” he recalls.
Around 2.55 am, Tippannavar got a call from the student’s roommate saying she had returned but was in bad shape. Tippannavar, Jai Vittal, the estate officer of the university, and other police officials rushed to the room.
The distraught student had shared her ordeal with her roommate and the police learnt that the three men had raped her in an isolated place. While two accused got down midway, one dropped her back to her room.
Pictures of accused in the Manipal University rape-murder case. (File photo)
Under pressure, police begin probe
The next day, the incident sent shockwaves across the country, raising questions about the safety of women. “The Nirbhaya gang-rape case was still fresh in public memory. An incident like this within the campus premises raised a lot of questions. We were under severe pressure to nab the accused,” says Tippannavar.
With the police coming under the media glare, it was all hands on deck. Pratap Reddy, Inspector General of Police (West), and M B Boralingaiah, Superintendent of Police, were stationed at the Manipal police station. Tippannavar says he remembers not sleeping for the next four days.
“We released sketches of the suspects from whatever information we had. Every day, there was a media briefing at around 4 pm to prevent speculation and to share information, selectively,” he says.
The police realised that they were running out of time. “More than 150 police personnel from various police stations of the district were part of the team. If you remember, besides the Nirbhaya incident, the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government had not even finished a month when the crime occurred. Then home minister K J George was also constantly in touch with investigating officials. There was a lot of pressure on the police,” says a police officer.
Tippannavar says the only evidence the police had was that the student had been abducted in an autorickshaw. “There were CCTV cameras but we could not see the registration number of vehicles. The security guard who had chased the autorickshaw had also not seen the registration number. Across the district, we called all autorickshaw drivers to appear before the investigating team and about 12,000 drivers were scanned,” says Tippannavar.
The police scanned the mobile phones that were active at the location but there were no results. “As we were investigating, we learned that an autorickshaw driver named Yogish had not appeared before the police,” he adds.
When the police tried to get in touch with Yogish, they found that he was not in town. That is when the police learned that Yogish’s vehicle had been plying on the road on the day of the incident. The investigation team had its first suspect.
“The nearest petrol pump was Sri Krishna petrol pump. We checked their CCTV footage and found that Yogish, Hariprasad and Ananda had visited the petrol pump a few minutes before the crime. On June 20, 2013, around 11 pm, they had refilled fuel for Rs 100. We had our men…,” says Tippannavar.
A suicide drama
The police thought they had their suspects but what they did not foresee was that they would have to ‘save’ them first.
After the news of the rape became public, Yogish had taken a bus to Mysuru. “I went to Mysuru in search of Yogish after tracking his mobile phone. By then, it was June 26 and he had returned to Udupi. While I was in Mysuru, Yogish called me over the phone and said that the police would never be able to catch him as he was planning to die by suicide. I immediately alerted the local police who tracked him down,” says Tippannavar.
By the time the local police reached the spot, Yogish had tried to die by suicide. The police shifted him to Kasturba Medical College, Manipal. Another accused, Anand, also tried to die by suicide and was rescued by the police.
Subsequently, Yogish, Ananda and Hariprasad were arrested. The police found out that Yogish’s brother Balachandra and Hariprasad’s brother Harindra Poojary had tried to destroy evidence.
The conviction
On October 15, 2015, a principal sessions judge in Udupi district convicted all five accused in the case. Judge Shivashankar B Amarannavar sentenced Yogish, Hariprasad and Ananda to rigorous imprisonment for life and a fine of Rs 1 lakh. Balachandra and Poojary were sentenced to three years’ imprisonment.
A police officer who was part of the probe team remembers how they brought a ‘fake victim’ to court to let the medical student enter court without media attention. “While the media was waiting with the cameras, we brought another woman wearing a burkha. Unknown to them, we had brought the victim unnoticed from the back gate wearing a burkha. By then, the police actions had instilled confidence in the victim. She confidently gave her statement. That was a relief for us,” he says.
Reddy, who has retired now, says that as Manipal was a student hub, the police had initiated several measures, keeping the safety of women and students in mind. “Even before the Nirbhaya incident, we had held talks with the university about how the campus had to be lit and how CCTVs had to be installed at the right places. But even then this incident happened,” he says.
Tippannavar is now an ACP in Bengaluru’s Peenya. “As a police officer, I am relieved that I got justice for the victim but as a father or a human being, I don’t think I have given the girl justice,” he says. “I am in touch with her and whenever she sees me on some news channel, she calls me to ask how I am doing. She has moved on and she is now a reputed doctor and I am very happy about it,” he adds.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Sadananda Tippannavar(right). (File photo) 
Pictures of accused in the Manipal University rape-murder case. (File photo)
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