Bharathi Urs, daughter of former chief minister of Karnataka Devraj Urs, was on Thursday acquitted of murder charges by a fast track court in Bengaluru.
Bharathi was facing the charge of murdering her cousin Chitralekha Urs, who was the daughter of a former judge of the Karnataka High Court.
This was considered one of the most high profile cases in the state as it involved the daughters of a former chief minister and former high court judge. The case of the prosecution was that Bharathi, along with her two accomplices, had murdered Chitralekha Urs over some financial disputes.
The murder is said to have occurred on January 19 2002, but the body was found at the Shiradi Ghats in Karnataka almost two months later.
Judge, K Amaranarayan, while observing the witness said in a 105-page judgment that the evidence does not remotely indicate that Bharathi committed the offence.
While acquitting her two other accomplices, Chandrakanth and Madhukar, who had allegedly helped her out with the disposal of the body, the judge observed that the witnesses too had claimed that they had never seen the accused.
Moreover, the conduct of the accused was not unnatural in nature. She had been very close to the deceased and she would often frequent her house. It shows that the two were very close to each other and they were more like friends.
The prosecution had raised the ground that Bharathi had told the family of the deceased not to file a complaint after she went missing.
The defence, however, stated that she said so keeping in mind the social status of the family and also taking into consideration that being a single woman, it would affect the status of the family. The court while taking this into consideration held the three accused not guilty.
