Bengaluru, July 18 (IANS) A Madikeri court in Kodagu district on Monday ordered police to file a First Information Report (FIR) against Karnataka minister K.J. George and two IPS officers in connection with the alleged suicide of DSP M.K. Ganapathi on July 7.
Additional Judicial Magistrate Annapurneshwari ordered Madikeri police to file the FIR against George, Additional Director General of Police (Intelligence) A.M. Prasad and Lokayukta (Ombdusman) Inspector General of Police Pranob Mohanty on a private complaint filed by Ganapathi's elder son Nehal under section 306 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The complaint is based on Ganapathi's interview to a local news channel hours before he committed suicide in a lodge room in the town. In the interview he accused the trio of harassing him and held them responsible should anything happen to him in future.
Madikeri is about 260 km from Bengaluru.
Though local police had filed a case of unnatural death under section 174 of the IPC on July 8, the complainant petitioned the court to treat Ganapathi's interview as his dying declaration under 32 (1) of the IPC and file an FIR against the trio.
In a related development, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said in the legislative council that he would wait for the court order before responding to the demand of BJP leader K.S. Eshwarappa that George should be sacked or told to resign.
"I am to yet to receive the court's order. I will respond after going through it and will not go by what Eshswarappa says," the Chief Minister said after the opposition BJP and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) members disrupted the house proceedings, demanding the resignation of George, suspension of Prasad and Mohanty and transfer of the case to the CBI instead of a judicial inquiry.
George was the Home Minister till October 31, 2015 before he was made Bengaluru Development Minister and the ruling party's state unit president G. Parameshwara replaced him.
