7 rape suspects get public welcome, 4 put back in jail

HAVERI: Seven suspects in the 2024 Haveri gang-rape case in Karnataka, involving a woman targeted for allegedly being in an interfaith relationship, received a warm public welcome upon their release on bail from district sub-jail this week, reports Basavaraj Maralihalli.Videos have emerged of a cavalcade of motorbikes and cars with their sunroofs open taking the seven men on a celebratory ride through Akki Alur town of Haveri. Haveri SP A K Srivastava said four of the seven had since been arrested again.Suspects’ conduct violates terms of conditional bail: Legal experts Haveri SP A K Srivastava said that four of the seven suspects had since been arrested again, based on a fresh FIR registered under the new penal code BNS for violations ranging from unlawful assembly to rioting and criminal intimidation. The other three are “absconding”. “The investigation officer has petitioned the court for cancellation of their bail,” the SP said. Legal experts said that the suspects’ conduct in public after being released from jail was tantamount to violating terms of their conditional bail.The suspects – Aftab Chandanakatti, Madar Saab Mandakki, Samiwulla Lalanavar, Mohammad Sadiq Agasimani, Shoib Mulla, Tausip Choti, and Riyaz Savikeri – charged with gangrape under Section 376D of the Indian Penal Code, had spent 17 months in Haveri sub-jail before the additional district and sessions court granted them bail on May 20.

The alleged gangrape had been treated as a “moral policing case” until the survivor, then 26, had her statement recorded by a magistrate on Jan 11, 2024. The woman said that the suspects barged into a hotel she was staying in with her partner, took her to a forested area near Nalkuru Cross of Hangal and raped her.Her statement led to 19 arrests. She identified the primary suspects after the arrested men were paraded before the Hangal tahsildar.By mid-2024, 12 of the suspects allegedly involved in facilitating the crime or physically assaulting the survivor were out on bail. The seven primary accused had several bail pleas rejected until the sessions court released them.Public prosecutor Vijaykumar Patil said that the court’s decision was influenced by the survivor’s alleged reluctance to stick to her statements implicating the main accused.The investigation report contains statements from around 80 witnesses, forensic experts, doctors, and the hotel owner and his staff. C Gopal, then additional SP of Haveri, led the investigation and drafted the chargesheet. The primary suspects are from Akkialuru village.