Bengaluru, Jun 28: Police Sub-Inspector turned BJP activist Girish Mattennavar and two of his associates have been finally acquitted by a local court, here in 13 year old case of bomb attack attempt on Karnataka Legislators' Home.
Even though Mattennavar had openly claimed to have planted the bombs after his arrest and justified his action by saying that it was an attack against corruption, Judge Chennakeshava on Monday exonerated him and two others due to lack of evidence.
Mattennavar, a 26-year-old sub-inspector with Narona police, Kalaburagi, in 2003, had come to the city for rifle-shooting training, when he allegedly planted four bombs in the fifth floor toilets of the Legislators' Home, and made a call to the police control room alerting it of the bombs.
The callers had claimed that theirs was a crusade against corruption by politicians. The police had later arrested Mattennavar, Guranna Ammapura and Girish Babu, his associates in connection with the case, and charge-sheeted them.
Even though the local media had initially treated it as a terror attack, after the arrest of Mattennavar, he was treated as a crusader against corruption.
The trial of the case that dragged on for 13 years, ended on Monday in the acquittal of all the three accused in the case by the 66th City Civil Court and Sessions Court.
Vidhana Soudha police sources said the court had acquitted all the three accused in the case on the benefit of doubt for want of evidence. The owner of the STD booth from where the group had made the call to the police had allegedly noted down the motorcycle number when they returned again to fetch the helmet they had left behind.
This formed the main evidence against the accused. However, this evidence was successfully challenged in the court after which the case fell flat, said senior police officials involved in the case.
Mattennavar, who is now a BJP activist, expressed his happiness over the acquittal. However, after the judgement he was careful enough not to comment on his involvement in the case even though he had openly confessed to the crime 13 years ago.
The kidnapped schoolboy was rescued by the police and reunited with his parents. Son of a gift shop owner from Basavanagudi area in Bengaluru, Chirag has reportedly told police that decided to make some quick money to spend on cricket betting and gambling after learning kidnap tricks from the ‘Crime Patrol’. According to police, Chirag reached a private school around 3pm on Tuesday on a Bounce rental bike and zeroed in on a fourth standard student who was walking out of school. He told the boy he was his father's friend and that he required help to search for a relative who had gone missing. The boy believed Chirag and rode pillion on the bike. Chirag then engaged the boy in conversation and learnt about his father's business and got his mobile phone number. He then made a call to the boy's father, demanded Rs 5 lakh and warned him against approaching cops. However, the boy's father alerted Cottonpet police and special teams were formed to crack the case. While Cottonpet inspector Venkatesh TC's squad verified CCTV footage in and around the school, Chamarajpet inspector BG Kumaraswamy's team started tracking the suspect's mobile phone movements. An hour later, the suspect's location was traced to a hotel on the Lavelle Road-St Mark's Road stretch. Police rushed there, rescued the boy and arrested Chirag.
Comments
Another Hindu terrorist?
Court acquitted him ....
Now he is dangerous to the society and cant trust this guy anymore. He can do anything anytime anywhere.
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