Witnesses in legal cases would do well to think twice before turning hostile. A Lokayukta special court in Bagalkot has sentenced five witnesses in two separate cases for turning hostile. In the first case, the court had convicted a village accountant in 2011. The case was that convict P.M. Matpathi, who was village accountant at Mudhol taluk in 2009, had demanded and accepted a bribe of Rs 1,000 to issue a death certificate. The Lokayukta police had arrested him red-handed while accepting the bribe amount.
The complainant Govinda had approached the accused for issuance of death certificates of his brother and sister-in-law. The police had submitted the chargesheet and during the trial, complainant Govinda and another witness, Sateesha B. Nayak, who was working as a personal assistant to the accused, had turned hostile.The chief judicial magistrate court, Bagalkot, registered a criminal case against both the witnesses under Section 193 of IPC. The court, this week, sentenced both the witnesses to simple imprisonment up to two years with a fine of Rs 5,000 each.
In another case, the Bagalkot court convicted three witnesses in a case to undergo simple imprisonment up to two years with a fine. The Lokayukta police had arrested a typist at the district officer BCM Department, Ms H.H. Chimmanakatti, while accepting a bribe of Rs 2,000. The police chargesheet stated that Ms Chimmanakatti had demanded the bribe from the complainant K.G. Sutara to issue a validity certificate. During the trial, thre witnesses — Ramesh Kulkarni (FDA), Meenakshi Koti (SDA) and S.L. Ambi (SDA) — all officials of BCM Department, turned hostile. After the trial, the court convicted Ms Chimmanakatti in January 2011 to simple imprisonment up to five years and a fine of Rs 15,000. The court registered a case against the three witnesses based on the complaint of court shirstedar and convicted them to undergo simple imprisonment up to two years and slapped a fine of Rs 5,000 each.