Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SP)
Udupi, Mar 7: A bullet had taken away the life of a financier, Santosh Monteiro (36), at his flat at Shribeedu here on the night of May 28, 2013. His wife, Rekha Monteiro, had told the police that her husband, who returned to his apartment at 6.30 that day, had taken out a pistol from the cupboard at around 9.30 pm, before telling her that he had decided to kill himself. She said he had then pointed the pistol at his head before pulling the trigger.
The police had registered the death of Monteiro as a case of suicide. They mechanically followed the procedures without bothering to follow other leads, before concluding that it was indeed a case of suicide. They also filed 'B' report in the court.
The locals however had strong suspicion that this could be a case of murder. Brother of Santosh, Dr Francis Monteiro, who happens to be a forensic science expert in A J Medical College at Mangaluru, took upon himself the task of reaching the bottom of this case.
Francis was aware that the marital relationship between the duo, Santosh Monteiro and Rekha was not cordial. The couple have two children. Francis also knew that his brother would never commit suicide and suspected that this could be a case of murder. He began to doubt the efficiency and accuracy of police investigation, and as he picked up the threads of investigation and pooled minute information, Francis began to realize the follies committed by the investigators.
After the death, Francis realized, that everything went in such a way that both the young sons of the deceased were kept unaware of how their father died. Even after about a year since the death, close ones of Santosh were in the dark about where the investigation was heading. So, his father filed application under Right to Information Act and found lacunae in the investigation and even in the postmortem report that supported the assessment of the investigating officer that Santosh had fired at himself.
Although the police had enough evidence to suggest foul play, they closed the case by filing 'B' report instead of filing charge sheet. Therefore, a private complaint was filed in the court, after which the court ordered higher officials to investigate the case again. These higher ups again filed 'B' report. Both the father and brother of Santosh challenged this finding in court, and asked the court to cancel this 'B' report.
Principal civil judge and JMFC judge, K A Nagaratna, who conducted hearing in the case on the basis of sworn affidavits filed by Francis and his father, has prima come to the conclusion that it was a murder. Accordingly, he court ordered cancellation of both the 'B' reports filed by the police. The judge also passed orders to book Rekha Monteiro under sections 182, 299, 302 and 201 of Indian Penal Code relating to murder, and served summons on her to appear in the court for facing trial. Advocate from Kundapur, Ravikiran Murudeshwar, has been representing the complainants in the case.
Francis, on the basis of his knowledge and experience in the field, succeeded in convincing the court that this could be murder, by pointing out that his bother's fist should have been tight and the pistol should have been lying nearby if he had committed suicide, but ground realities were telling a different tale altogether. He said that the bullet which pierces through the head always has blood stains, but in this case no stains were present. Moreover, the pistol found there was not the one from which the bullet was fired. He also drew the attention of the court to the fact that the pistol examined by police officials did not bear the finger print of the deceased nor it had any blood cells, both of which are very crucial. In addition, he pointed out to the failure of the police officials to investigate into the current location of the pistol owned by his sister-in-law.
Francis questioned why call records of Rekha were not verified by police. He stated that there is wide gap between the time the death occurred and the time message was sent from the cellphone. He questioned the police for failing to make enquiries with neighbours and security personnel of the apartment complex before concluding their investigations.