Udupi: The principal district and sessions Judge Venkatesh Naik T, passed an order in the infamous Bhaskar Shetty case, to recover Rs 10,000 from the salary payable to a Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) official and remit it to the government for repeatedly skipping the hearings.
With regard to the bail plea of one of the accused, Rajeshwari Shetty, wife of Bhaskar Shetty, the Supreme Court had ordered that bail be granted after examining the 36 witnesses mentioned in the charge sheet in six months. While 35 witnesses were examined, the examination of the 36th witness, FSL DNA examination officer Purushotham was kept pending as he did not appear for the hearing. He had also absented himself from the next two hearings, after which a bailable arrest warrant was issued against him.
According to the public prosecutor, Purushotham was unable to travel from Udupi to Bengaluru for the hearing due to a terrible backache. The judge, however, was not satisfied with the excuse and passed the order to deduct a fine of Rs 10,000 from Purushotham’s salary. His next hearing has been fixed on October 26.
Now that the stipulated time period of six months has lapsed owing to the delay in Purushotham’s hearing, the court will have to approach the SC for an extension of the time period.
