Mysuru: Two months after a Mysuru court honourably acquitted Kurubara Suresh, a tribal, he knocked on the doors of high court seeking compensation of Rs 5 crore from policemen for falsely implicating him in a murder case. The case is likely to be taken up for hearing next week.Advocate BS Pandu Poojari, who represented Suresh in the lower court, said Suresh was falsely accused of murdering his wife Mallige and was incarcerated for nearly two years before he was acquitted in April this year. Suresh underwent mental as well as physical agony for four years since the case was booked against him in 2021, he said.Mallige was found to be alive, leading the lower court to acquit him honourably.Though the local court ordered compensation, a criminal appeal petition has been filed in the high court seeking higher compensation from policemen, including senior officers, for their alleged erroneous investigation leading to the arrest of Suresh and his subsequent imprisonment for no wrongdoing, the advocate said.Meanwhile, the lower court directed the court administrative officer of Mysuru Court to book a case against one senior officer of the total five cops involved in the case for their alleged lapses in the investigation. Pandu said all five policemen who investigated the case are equally accountable and hence all five should be booked.Advocate Pandu said a writ petition is also filed seeking to consider Suresh as a victim instead of an accused in the order. Since he was falsely charged with murder, he cannot be called an accused. This would prevent him from claiming any compensation under the victim compensation fund, as the accused aren’t eligible to receive it under the fund.After Suresha’s wife Mallige went missing in late 2020 from Basavanahalli in Kushalnagar, Kodagu, and months later a body was found in Mysuru district police limits, Bettadapura police arrested Suresh, accusing him of murdering his wife. Though he pleaded innocence, claiming he didn’t murder his wife, he was charged with murder and sent behind bars.Fortunately, his wife Mallige was found alive in Madikeri by one of Suresha’s relatives, and then she was secured by local police and produced before Mysuru court in early April.
