Pramesh S Jain
Police had allegedly booked Rajesh for murder based on a single phone call;woman says she left home on her own and has no connection with him.
A woman who was presumed murdered in Mandya district has been found alive,exposing serious questions over the investigation that sent an innocent man to jail for nearly two-and-a-half years.
Rajesh,a resident of Ragimuddanahalli,was arrested in 2021 for allegedly murdering Manju,who had gone missing from Pandavapura town in 2019.
With no body recovered,police had built a murder case against him based primarily on a phone call made by the missing woman shortly before she disappeared.
According to the sequence of events,Manju went missing from Pandavapura in 2019.
Her father,Nagaraju,subsequently lodged a missing-person complaint at the Pandavapura police station.However,the police failed to trace her for nearly two years.
In 2021,investigators zeroed in on Rajesh after discovering that Manju had borrowed someone’s mobile phone at the Pandavapura bus stand and made a call shortly before disappearing.The phone reportedly belonged to Rajesh.
Relying on this single phone call,the then Pandavapura Police Inspector Prabhakar and his team allegedly concluded that Rajesh had murdered Manju and registered a murder case against him.
Rajesh reportedly told investigators that he had nothing to do with the woman’s disappearance.
However,he was allegedly subjected to severe custodial torture,including being kicked with boots and given electric shocks. Police also allegedly threatened to implicate his family members in the case if he did not confess.
Under pressure,Rajesh was allegedly forced to give a confession claiming responsibility for a murder he says he never committed.
He was subsequently sent to prison in 2021,After spending nearly two-and-a-half years behind bars, Rajesh secured bail in January 2024.
However,the stigma of being branded a murderer continued to haunt him.
Determined to establish his innocence,his advocate Natesh pursued the case and,acting on specific information,traced Manju alive in Nagamangala.
She was subsequently handed over to the Bindiganavile police, who recorded her statement.
In her statement,Manju reportedly told the police that she had left home voluntarily because her family had arranged a marriage against her wishes.
She also said that she had since married another man and was living with him.
More importantly,she categorically stated that she had no connection with Rajesh and did not even know who he was.
The woman’s discovery alive has brought the investigation into sharp focus.While the mystery surrounding her disappearance may have been resolved, serious questions remain about how a missing-person case turned into a murder investigation without the recovery of a body or independent evidence establishing the alleged crime.
Who will take responsibility for Rajesh’s two-and-a-half years in prison,the alleged torture in police custody and the humiliation suffered by his family?.
The case also raises questions about the role of the officers who investigated the disappearance and allegedly obtained a confession through coercion.
Whether the police department will initiate action against those responsible remains to be seen.
