The Karnataka government on Friday replaced the chief of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up last month to probe the 2012 rape and murder of 17-year-old Sowjanya.
Venkatesh Prasanna, additional superintendent of police, Bengaluru Rural, who was also appointed to the SIT, has also been replaced by Hassan Additional SP Srinidhi. Inspector general of police (IGP) N Shashi Kumar, who was named head of the SIT on September 24, has been replaced by Criminal Investigation Department IGP Chetan Singh Rathore, according to a home department order. In its September 21 order, the court identified deficiencies in the earlier investigations and directed that officers associated with the previous probes by Belthangady police, CID and the Central Bureau of Investigation should not be included in the new team.
The remaining appointments have been retained, an officer familiar with the development said.
Prasanna also requested that he should be kept out after Sowjanya’s family objected to his inclusion.
A government official said Shashi Kumar had asked to be relieved of the assignment.
The postmortem examination had not been videographed, and several articles belonging to Sowjanya had not been recovered. Because of improper storage, the court noted, a vaginal swab collected during the investigation also could not be analysed.
The fresh investigation into her murder follows a September 21 order of the Supreme Court on a petition filed by Sowjanya’s mother, Kusumavathi Gowda. The court cited problems in collecting and preserving forensic evidence, including hair samples recovered from Sowjanya’s clothing that belonged to individuals other than Santhosh Rao, who was prosecuted and later acquitted.
It said the samples could be compared with DNA evidence from potential suspects.
She sought a fresh probe after earlier investigations by the Karnataka CID and the Central Bureau of Investigation failed to establish who was responsible.
