Bengaluru: In a major setback for former Congress Minister and current MLA K.J. George, the Special Court for Legislators and Parliamentarians in Bengaluru yesterday ordered that a case be registered against him for his alleged role in the death of Dy.SP M.K. Ganapathy. The Court also ordered cases to be registered against two IPS officers Pronab Mohanty and Ashit Mohan Prasad accused in the case. Judge T.N. Inavally said that there is scope for investigation in the death case. This comes after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) submitted a closure report to the Court in October last year. 

The Court ordered that a case be registered under Sections 306 (abetment of suicide with common intention) along with Section 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. Nehal Ganapathy, son of the deceased officer, had moved the Special Court. “…there is prima facie material against the accused persons to take cognisance of the offence punishable under Sec.306 of the Indian Penal Code and proceed against them,” Judge Inavally observed. 

Court observation

The Special Court rejected the opinion of the CBI Investigating Officer (IO) that all the instances, referred to by Ganapathy during his interview to the media prior to ending his life, happened long ago and there is no immediate proximity between the suicide and the instances (connected to the three accused) presented in the interview. 

The question as to whether the facts stated by the deceased to the media are true or false and whether the interview to media can be considered as a death note are to be considered on merits during trial, the Special Court said.

George-Mohanty connection to case

Though Ganapathy was not directly working under the three accused persons at the time of ending his life, the Special Court said there are materials — though dated five to seven years ago — in the form of statements linking Ganapathy with the accused.

The statements recorded by the IO shows that handling of an incident of attack on a church in Mangaluru in 2008, when Ganapathy was serving as jurisdictional Police officer, links to George when he became Home Minister in 2013, the Special Court said.

Also, the Special Court noted that Ganapathy had declined to do a favour to Prasad to help the latter’s son, who was pursuing Engineering (during 2006-10) in Udupi district. The allegation that Mohanty had demanded money from Ganapathy was related to the period when both Mohanty and Ganapathy were serving in Bengaluru, the Court noted.

Twists and turns

Ganapathy was working as a Dy.SP in Mangaluru and died after taking his life on July 7, 2016 at Sree Vinayak Lodge in Madikeri. Before he took the step, Ganapathy had told local media that K.J. George and two IPS officers were harassing him. 

The prime accused in the case was the then Home Minister K.J. George, Pronab Mohanty, who was at the time the IGP Lokayukta and A.M. Prasad, who is now the DGP, Home Guards and Civil Defence and was then serving as ADGP Intelligence. He had also said that “if he dies, the three men would be responsible for it.” 

In October last year, the CBI had submitted to the Court in Madikeri that there was no evidence indicating that the three accused were responsible for the death of Ganapathy. However, the Special Court rejected the CBI’s closure report and dismissed the petition filed by the IO to close the case. 

After his death in 2016, upon the family’s request, the CID was tasked with probing the case. The CID had filed a closure report stating that there was no evidence against the accused to indicate that they were responsible for Ganapathy’s death. The family had subsequently moved the Supreme Court and the case was transferred to the CBI, which also gave the accused a clean chit.