Date:10/02/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/02/10/stories/2006021025200300.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Former police officer acquitted in robbery case

Staff Reporter

Prosecution failed to establish case: judge

BANGALORE: A city court has acquitted the former Assistant Commissioner of Police Belliappa and five others, charged with a highway robbery of a gold merchant in 2002.

The third Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Raghunath, while passing the acquittal order, said the prosecution has failed to establish a case against the accused. In its chargesheet, the police had claimed that on August 27, 2002, Mr. Belliappa and five others had robbed a Kerala-based jeweller of Rs. 19.60 lakhs.

Mr. Belliappa, who then headed the Vijaynagar traffic zone in the city, the chargesheet said, had deputed Dasappa (Sub-Inspector) to intercept a bus near Kengeri. The bus was stopped on Mysore Road and a bag comprising the cash was snatched away from Danaraj and Manohar, employees of Sainuddn, a gold merchant from Kozhikode, Kerala, according to the chargesheet.

The chargesheet said posing as Customs officials, Belliappa and others had dragged Dhanaraj Unni and Manohar out in Kengeri police station limits.

A case was registered on September 3, 2002, following which the chargesheet was filed. During the course of the trial, some of the witnesses, the bus driver and the cleaner had turned hostile. The court, while directing the police to hand over the money to the complainant, also acquitted Parthasarathy (Head Constable), Dasappa (Sub-Inspector), Mohan (Constable), Mohan (informant) and Lingaraju.