Mangalore, August 25: Seemanth Kumar Singh, the Mangalore City Police Commissioner, could face disciplinary action for failing to execute non-bailable warrant against Janardhana Reddy when he was serving as the Superintendent of police in Bellary district.
The State Government on Wednesday informed the Karnataka High Court that nine police personnel — from the rank of constable to Director-General and Inspector-General of Police — had failed to ensure serving of summons and warrants issued by the magistrate court in Sandur to the then Minister G. Janardhan Reddy in 2010.
The Government also undertook to suspend all the officers responsible and initiate action against them while admitting that the Bellary police had given false reports to the trial court that Mr. Reddy was “out of station” or “on tour” on at least eight occasions, even though Mr. Reddy was present in Bellary.
Inquiry report
Principal Secretary, Home Department, S.M. Jaamdar, who submitted the inquiry report as directed by the court, gave an undertaking in this regard to a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice J.S. Khehar and Justice Ashok B. Hinchigeri during the hearing on a public interest litigation petition filed by advocate G.R. Mohan.
Action recommended
The Principal Secretary has recommended action against the then Director-General and Inspector-General of Police (DG&IGP) Ajai Kumar Singh, IGP (Eastern Range) Seemanth Kumar Singh, H.N.S. Rao, The then Bellary Superintendent of Police (SP) M.N. Nagaraj, then Additional SP (Bellary) Ashok Kerur, then Deputy SP (Kudligi) H.Y. Turai, then Sandur Circle Police Inspector Y.H. Ramakanth, then Toranagal Sub-Inspector M. Umesh and constable C. Suryanarayana.
'Collective failure'
In his report, Mr. Jaamdar said, “This is a typical and serious case of the collective failure of the police from top to bottom to execute warrants issued by a court dealing with criminal cases. Each has tried to pass the buck on to others either above or below, simply because they were obviously aware and afraid of the consequences of enforcing the law against a powerful Minister in the State Cabinet, who was accused in a criminal case.”
Referring to the inaction of senior police officers, the report stated that “they chose to turn a deaf ear and blind eye to the judicial process and put the onus on powerless and helpless constables and the Police Sub-Inspector. Obviously driven to the wall, the helpless constable went on filing false reports to the court about Accused No. 2 (Reddy) not being in the district headquarters.”
The report finds that SP Nagaraj's claims that “he was not aware of media reports on non-execution of warrants and there was no direction from higher-ups in this regard” were false as the IGP (Eastern Range) and the DG-IGP did ask him about the issue on noticing media reports.
It has been stated in the report that Mr. Rao and Mr. Singh (who retired in January) should have taken steps — in writing or by sending an officer from their office — to ensure execution of warrant after they noticed reports in the media.
Additional Advocate-General K.M. Nataraj said the Government would post police personnel at the courts within a month.
He also informed the court that the Government would draw up specific duties and responsibilities for the personnel posted to the courts for effective execution of summons and warrants to the accused, and to ensure the presence of prosecution witnesses for the expeditious disposal of criminal trials.
The undertaking was given following a direction issued by the court to the Government to ensure that the failure to serve summons and warrants to Mr. Reddy by the police should not recur.
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