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Karnataka man falsely implicated in wife's alleged murder moves HC for Rs 5-crore compensation after acquittal
A man accused of his wife's alleged murder and subsequently acquitted after she was discovered to be alive has approached the Karnataka High Court for an enhancement in compensation granted–from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 crore–among other reliefs.
Kurubara Suresh, a native of the Kodagu district, filed a missing person complaint regarding his wife Mallige in November 2020. He was arrested the next year after the mistaken identification of a skeleton as his wife. He located his supposedly dead wife in a village 30 km away from his home this April while out on bail. He had been tipped off by his friends who had seen her in a restaurant drinking coffee with a man she had been in a relationship with.
When produced before the court, she submitted that she had been living with her lover since November 2020 and did not know that Suresh had been arrested on charges of murdering her. The trial court subsequently acquitted him, ordering the payment of Rs 1 lakh compensation and an investigation into the body that had been found.
In his petition in the high court, Suresh argues that he has lost one and a half years of his life and respect in society, while his children have lost their education.
The petition also takes issue with the fact that only one policeman has been booked on charges of fabricating false evidence, arguing that the other four policemen in the case should also be proceeded against, instead of facing a departmental inquiry.
Suresh's petition also calls for the removal of his name in the judgment as an 'accused' and wants the term replaced with 'victim'.
