Bengaluru, September 24 (Daily Kiran) : The Karnataka government has announced the formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to reinvestigate the 2012 rape and murder case of a college student, known as the Soujanya case. This decision follows directives from the Supreme Court.
IPS officer N. Shashikumar will lead the newly formed SIT, which includes members CK Sudhir Kumar Reddy, Nikhila James, Lokesh Jaglaskar, and Venkatesh Prasanna. The team is tasked with conducting a fresh inquiry into the case, adhering to the Supreme Court’s instructions, and is expected to submit its findings to the relevant court within three months.
The Soujanya case dates back to October 2012, when 17-year-old Soujanya, a second-year pre-university student at SDM College in Ujire, went missing while returning home in the Belthangady taluk of Mangaluru district. Her family filed a missing person report at the Belthangady police station on October 9, 2012. The following day, her body was discovered in bushes near Mannasanka, leading to charges of rape and murder being added to the investigation.
Initially, the Belthangady police handled the case, but it was later transferred to the Karnataka CID and subsequently to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The police arrested Santosh Rao as the sole accused, and he faced trial for the crime. However, in June 2023, a special CBI court acquitted Rao, stating that the prosecution failed to establish sufficient evidence against him. The CBI has since appealed this ruling in the Karnataka High Court.
On September 21, 2026, the Supreme Court ordered a comprehensive reinvestigation of the case. Justices Sanjay Kumar and Sanjeev Sachdeva directed the Karnataka government to form the SIT, explicitly stating that no officers involved in the previous investigations should be part of the new team.
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