Senior counsel S Balan has said that the woman who filed a complaint against BJP leader BS Yediyurappa had taken an appointment to meet him on May 27, Monday evening. However, the 53-year-old woman passed away on Sunday, May 26. The woman had filed a complaint at the Sadashivanagar police station on March 14, alleging that Yediyurappa had sexually assaulted her 17-year-old daughter at his residence in Bengaluru when they had gone to seek his help. A case had been registered under section 8 (sexual assault) of POCSO and Section 354A (assaults or uses criminal force to any woman) of the Indian Penal Code.
Balan termed the death as suspicious and said that the police had to ensure there was a post mortem. “She spoke to me and said her lawyer was not helping her. She wanted to meet me and see if I could pursue the case on her behalf. She was supposed to get all the documents related to the case and meet me at 5.30 pm. But in the afternoon, I was informed that she had died. I was also told that her dead body was taken out of the backdoor of the hospital. There is something suspicious, a post mortem has to be done. This is the state’s duty,” he told TNM.
An activist, who was working with the woman, said, “She was estranged from her son and was fighting the case with just her daughter. Her son and other extended family had abandoned her. But when she died, the son returned, and without even allowing for an autopsy to be conducted, he along with the woman’s brother took the body from the hospital.”
Speaking to the media, Dr Mohan MR, Medical Director at Nano Hospital said that she was brought in at 8.30 pm by her daughter with severe breathing issues and later her son too arrived at the hospital. “When we asked her, the woman told us that she was being treated for kidney issues for the last 8 years at Nu Hospital and she was under treatment for lung cancer for the last one and half years. She was suffering from acute respiratory distress. She was attended by the emergency and ICU doctors, but they were not able to resuscitate her and she passed away at 9.30 pm.”
The doctor also said that they explained the issues to the family and they were asked to lodge a medico legal case, so an autopsy could be conducted if they were not satisfied with the measures taken for her emergency treatment. “But they said they were satisfied and declined to lodge a complaint,” he said. The police too were present at the hospital when the woman died.
A police source also told TNM that she was admitted to the hospital for respiratory issues and it was only then that it was discovered that she was already undergoing treatment for a serious medical condition. Her oxygen levels dipped and she passed away.
S Balan is a senior advocate of the Karnataka High Court and a human rights activist. He is the Special Public Prosecutor in the Gauri Lankesh assassination case and has dealt with many high-profile cases.
Read: Woman who accused BS Yediyurappa of child sexual abuse dies in Bengaluru
A POCSO case against Yediyurappa was registered on March 14 after the woman filed a complaint that the former CM had sexually assaulted her 17-year-old daughter. Yediyurappa was booked under section 8 (sexual assault) of POCSO and section 354A (assaults or uses criminal force to any woman) of the Indian Penal Code. According to the woman, the incident happened at Yediyurappa’s house in Sadashivanagar. The FIR stated that the minor was allegedly a victim of sexual assault, and the mother-daughter duo had gone to the former CM’s house seeking help, where he allegedly sexually assaulted the minor.