Court orders FIR against Kartaka minister

Bengaluru, July 18: A Madikeri court in Kodagu district on Monday ordered police to file a First Information Report (FIR) against Kartaka minister K.J. George and two IPS officers in connection with the alleged suicide of DSP M.K. Gapathi on July 7. Additiol Judicial Magistrate Anpurneshwari ordered Madikeri police to file the FIR against George, Additiol Director General of Police (Intelligence) A.M. Prasad and Lokayukta (Ombdusman) Inspector General of Police Pranob Mohanty on a private complaint filed by Gapathi’s elder son Nehal under section 306 of the Indian Pel Code (IPC). The complaint is based on Gapathi’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 untural death under section 174 of the IPC on July 8, the complaint petitioned the court to treat Gapathi’s interview as his dying declaration under 32 (1) of the IPC and file an FIR against the trio. In a related development, Kartaka 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. (IANS)