Belthangadi police of Dakshin Kannada district of Karnataka are being criticized sharply. In fact, the police have admitted that it has destroyed the important records related to unknown deaths registered between 2000 and 2015. This is the same time when a whistleblower has accused a large number of women and minors to be buried in the city of Dharmasthala. Please tell that on digging on site number 6 of Dharmasthala, the remains of human skeletons have been found from there.
Whistbalore has claimed that between 1998 and 2014 it was forced to bury the bodies of women and minor girls and cremate them. It is alleged that many of these bodies had sexual harassment marks.
When asked a question under an RTI (Right to Information), the police replied that the postmortem report, posters on the walls, notices and photographs were used to identify the bodies, they have been destroyed under the general administrative process.
The matter became even more serious when information about unknown unnatural deaths recorded during the last 15 years under Section 174 (A) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CRPC) in an RTI application. In response, the Public Information Officer of Belthangadi police station said that the records sought are no longer present, as they have been destroyed under various government rules and procedures.
However, this answer has surprised legal experts and civil society organizations. He says that the police do not have the legal or moral right to destroy documents related to such records, especially unnatural deaths, because they have important information related to public interest.
It is also a matter of concern that South Kannada district is one of the highest digitization areas of Karnataka. Critics are concerned why they were not digitized before destroying such a sensitive record, especially when they have knowledge of unknown dead, whose families can still be in search of them.
It is clearly mentioned in the Karnataka Police Manual that when an unknown body is found, it is necessary to make public information, publicity and necessary efforts to identify it. In such a situation, eradication of records is being considered a serious mistake in protocol and accountability. This RTI was filed by the policy team at Kalmethadka in Kadba taluk.
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