Sea of humanity engulfs Belthangady; demands CBI probe into Saujnaya rape and murder case

Belthangady, Oct 25: A sea of humanity poured out on all roads leading to Belthangady Stadium on Friday urging justice for Saujanya who was raped and murdered a year ago allegedly by the kin of Dharmasthala Dharmadhikari Dr D Veerendra Heggade.

With grief in their hearts, hundreds of thousands of people from Ujire, Belthangady, Guruvayanakere, Madanthyaru, Naravi, Aladangady and surrounding areas gathered to participate in the massive protest.

The only demand was to bring the real perpetrators of the crime to justice.

People turned up in such large numbers that the roads leading to Belthangady were jammed for a distance of more than five kilometers.

Addressing the protestors, Esha Vitaldas Swamiji of Kemaru Sandipani said that their fight was not against any individual but against the system.

“God means love, not fear or terrorism. The massive gathering indicates justice will be with us,” he thundered.

Hindu leader Mahesh Shetty Thimarodi reiterated intensifying the protest urging that the case be handed over to the CBI. He said that Ravi Poojary, prime witness in the Saujanya rape and murder case, had committed suicide four months ago.

He also said that they would organize a national-level protest if the case was not handed over to CBI.

Demand for Sorake's resignation

There was a strong demand for Minister Vinay Kumar Sorake's resignation for shielding the culprit. In a public function, Sorake had vouched government was with Dr Veerendra Heggade.

They burnt my wife to death

75-year-old Dr B R Herale, a retired government doctor, who addressed the gathering recollected horrifying incident that took place nearly 34 years ago. He said, “They burnt my wife after dousing her in petrol just for seeking justice in her workplace. She was supposed to be the Headmistress as per rules. But, they wanted the post to be given to a particular community candidate. This led them to murder her mercilessly and projected me as murdered,” he recollected.

“I never saw either her postmortem report or FIR copy,” he said, adding that “after seeing this massive crowd, I feel a ray of hope for justice is still alive,” he said.

“26 years on, justice is still elusive”

83-year-old M K Devanand recollected that his 17-year-old daughter Padmalatha who went missing on December 22, 1986 and found murdered 26 years ago said he did not get support from the people then.

He said his daughter's body was found by the side of a stream 750 metres away from their house two months later on February 17, 1987.

Recollecting his traumatic incident, he said this happened when he filed his papers as candidate of the CPI in the Dharmasthala panchayat elections. He said there were threats to withdraw his candidature and as he withdrew his candidature, his daughter went missing.

Mother weeps uncontrollably

It was an emotional moment for Kusumavathi, mother of Saujanya. The broken mother said they have been living in hell for the last one year.

“The whole house is in gloom. Only we know how we have been surviving all this while,” she said teary eyed.

‘Forgive us dear friend..!'

When two friends of Saujanya sang a song'Mannisemmanu Gelathi..!' (‘Forgive us dear friend..!'

) amid sobs and wail, womenfolk, young and old alike, were seen howling in grief, while the friends and relatives of the deceased were inconsolable.

Day-long Bundh

Earlier in the day, all shops and businesses in Belthangady taluk remained closed as a mark of protest urging CBI probe into the case.

Heavy security was deployed police personnel maintaining hawk-eyed vigil.