In 29 days, 8 convicted for attack on BBMP officers

BENGALURU: A court here has convicted eight persons for assaulting BBMP officials and labourers, who were removing illegal flexes and hoardings from public places on a

Karnataka high court

directive.


They have been handed a two-year jail term and a penalty of Rs 5,000 each.

It’s a swift trial after the Karnataka high court took a serious note of the assault that occurred in Ramamurthy Nagar on August 2, called it contempt of court and ordered that the trial must be completed before August 31. The incident, the arrest, the filing of the chargesheet and the delivery of verdict all happened in August.

The 10th additional chief metropolitan magistrate, BK Nagesh Murthy, held the eight accused as guilty under IPC Section 332 (causing hurt to deterring public servant from duty) for assaulting BBMP officials and labourers in Ramamurthy Nagar. The accused were held guilty under several other IPC sections and under Section 3 of the Karnataka Open Places Prevention of Disfigurement Act, 1981.

The eight convicts are S Santhosh alias Santhosh Reddy, K Sharavanan, Edward Williams, Rajendran, Simmons, Kamalnath, Surya and Mallikarjun PG. Special public prosecutor CM Belalavar told TOI that the trial began on August 14 and the proceedings went on till 9.30pm on some days. On August 2, the high court ordered removal of illegal flexes and hoardings from the city. The BBMP swung into action and removed about 5,000 hoardings.

Some accused had fled to TN

The eight accused allegedly attacked BBMP officials undertaking the drive in Ramamurthy Nagar police station limits on that day. A case was registered against the eight persons.

When media reported the incident, the chief justice summoned the city police commissioner and told him to ensure no unauthorized flex is allowed to come up in the city, and action is taken against the alleged attackers. At that time, three of the attackers had been arrested, and the court was informed some of the accused had fled to Tamil Nadu.