The POCSO case against former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa has come to the fore again with the Karnataka State Women’s Commission writing to the Bengaluru City Police Commissioner seeking a detailed probe into the death of the victim’s mother under mysterious circumstances at a private hospital.
The 54-year-old woman died on May 26 owing to lung complications at Nano Hospitals in Hulimavu police station limits. Police sources had said that the woman was a cancer patient with advanced conditions. “She visited the hospital complaining of breathing issues and later died,” sources added.
In a letter, chairperson of the commission Nagalakshmi Choudhary sought a report on the cause of death.
The woman had complained that Mr. Yediyurappa had sexually assaulted her 17-year-old daughter at his residence this February. Following the complaint, a case against him under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act was registered at the Sadashivnagar police station in March.
The victim’s mother had even visited the women’s commission two days before she died. The doctors who treated her had declared that she had died of lung cancer. Even the police officials who had registered a UDR case based on the complaint have confirmed the cause of death as death owing to her prolonged illness.
“This is shocking as a person with lung cancer cannot die suddenly unless the death was due to a cardiac arrest or an accident,” Dr. Choudhary said.
The Akhila Bharata Janavadi Mahila Sanghatane had filed a complaint, alleging that the post-mortem of the woman was not conducted even after her death and that the police had not followed due procedures. Though the Hulimavu police, based on the complaint, registered a case of unnatural death, no progress was made in the investigation.