Justice Arali Nagaraj, on Monday, also asked the additional special public prosecutor to clarify if the government wanted the court to proceed with the case.
The officer investigating criminal charges, including rape, against self-styled godman Nithyananda has been asked to submit before the high court a progress report on the recording of statements of witnesses living abroad.
While directing the superintendent of police (CID) KN Yogappa to submit the report, justice Arali Nagaraj, on Monday, also asked the additional special public prosecutor to clarify if the government wanted the court to proceed with the case.
The judge posed this question to the prosecution in the light of a special leave petition (SLP) the government had filed before the Supreme Court. Justice Nagaraj enquired the prosecution if the court will wait for the outcome of the SLP.
The court asked the prosecutor to submit a memo clarifying the government’s stand on the case by October 20. The SLP was filed challenging the single bench’s July 23 directive to the investigation officer, asking him either to file the charge sheet or quash the cases against Nithyananda.
Yogappa had filed a detailed report on the progress of the case on September 23, and requested for more time to complete the probe since several of the witnesses were abroad.
Body buried a year ago to be exhumed
The high court of Karnataka on Monday ordered the exhumation of a body buried a year ago, and asked the medical superintendent of the government hospital in Udupi to examine the body to find the possible cause of the death.
Single-bench judge justice Mohan Shanthan Goudra directed the medical officer to submit a report within four weeks.
The court passed this directive based on a petition by Jacintha and Alwyn De Alemida, wife and father of the deceased Francis De Almeida.
The petitioners suspected foul play in Francis’s death, and moved the high court. Francis, of Karkala taluk, was found drowned on September 29, 2009, and a post-mortem examination was conducted at Manipal’s Kasturba Medical College. The body was later buried in Karkala.
The petitioners submitted before the court that they were informed of the death only after the burial. They suspected a man, Benjamin, might have murdered Francis.
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