A missing wife, a skeleton and a cup of coffee: How a tribal man, who spent 2 years in jail, tracked down his wife

On April 1 this year, Suresh, who has been out on bail since September 2024, managed to do something the police had failed to do. Not only did he track down his wife — who was very much alive and living with her alleged boyfriend in a village located nearly 30 km away — his tip-off to the local police resulted in Mallige being taken into custody.

A resident of Basavana Halli village in Kodagu district’s Kushalnagar taluk, Suresh has been married to Mallige for 18 years. The couple has two children, an 18-year-old son and a 15-year-old daughter.

Suresh, who says he is unlettered but can sign his name, tells The Indian Express, “When Bettadapura police arrived at my residence to arrest me (in June 2021), I pleaded with them saying that I had filed a missing complaint. Instead of hearing me out, they forced me to sign some documents and sent me to prison.”

Though he says he was aware of his wife’s affair around the time she allegedly went missing in November 2020, Suresh did not mention it while filing the missing person complaint or even after he was arrested.

While Suresh was in jail awaiting trial, his father, convinced that his daughter-in-law was alive, approached several lawyers to represent his son in court. After multiple lawyers turned him down, he approached B S Pandu Poojari. A Mysuru-based advocate, Poojari agreed to take up Suresh’s case free of charge in January 2022, nearly six months after his arrest.

“I went through the charge sheet and witness statement, but something seemed off. On behalf of Suresh, I applied for a DNA test of the skeletal remains against a sample from Mallige’s mother,” Poojari says.

The report, which was released in 2023, confirmed what Suresh had been claiming all along —the skeleton he had been taken to identify at an isolated spot in June 2021 was not his missing wife.

Poojari says he applied for Suresh’s bail before the Karnataka High Court. “Suresh got bail on September 27, 2023, since the DNA report contradicted the police’s claim,” he says.

Though Suresh got bail in September 2023, he remained in prison for another year as he lacked the means to furnish a security bond of Rs 1 lakh. In September 2024, Suresh was finally released on bail.

Determined to prove his innocence, he went back to the police station and asked the officials to search for his wife, but in vain.

Then, on April 1 this year, his friends spotted Mallige drinking coffee in a hotel with her alleged boyfriend.

Suresh says, “My friends were aware of my arrest in the case. They took a video of Mallige at the hotel and alerted me. I informed the Madikeri police, who took her to the station for verification of her identity.”

Mallige had been living in T Shettigeri village in Virajpet taluk of Kodagu district, 30 km away from Basavana Halli village, since she was reported missing by Suresh in November 2020.

After Suresh shared the photos and videos of Mallige shot by his friend with his lawyer, advocate Poojari says he visited the police station on April 2. “The police did not allow me to meet her or see her. I approached the court immediately. The court directed the police to produce Mallige before it,” he says.

Mallige was produced before the 5th Mysuru district and sessions court on April 2 as proof that she was alive. In her statement before the court, Mallige confirmed that she had been living with her boyfriend since November 2020. “She claimed she was unaware that her husband had been arrested for her murder,” says advocate Poojari.

Issuing notices to the Mysuru Superintendent of Police Vishnuvardhana N and the Investigating Officer (IO) of Bettadapura police station, the court asked them to respond to the charges of false arrest leveled by Suresh.

Advocate Poojari adds, “The court has summoned the Mysuru district SP, the IO and other police officials connected to the case on Thursday (April 4). It has also asked the SP to submit a report (on alleged negligence in handling the case) by April 17.”

Mysuru SP Vishnuvardhana did not respond to calls and messages by The Indian Express.

For Poojari, the bigger concern now is the real identity of the dead woman’s whose remains were misidentified.“Now that we know Mallige is alive, the police should reveal the identity of the dead woman. She is estimated to be aged around 28-30 years,” he says.

He adds, “The police have not just framed Suresh, but have also not attempted to identify the woman whose remains were misidentified as Mallige’s.”