Where is Karthik Gowda? Manhunt on in city, Madikeri

Bengaluru: Armed with the arrest warrant, the city police have launched a manhunt for Karthik Gowda, son of Union Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda, as the accused had not responded to police notices and was untraceable. Police teams are looking for Karthik in Madikeri, Mangalore and Bengaluru and its outskirts as the accused was evading arrest. A team of police had also gone to Mangalore to conduct spot inspection of the house, where the alleged marriage and the rape had taken place. However the police could not get access to the house as it was locked, a senior police officer said.

Meanwhile, the city civil and sessions court has posted to Saturday the orders of the anticipatory bail plea of Karthik Gowda, who was accused of kidnap and rape of a Kannada film actress. The victim was present at the court when the public prosecutor S. M. Hiremani submitted his nine page objections seeking not to grant anticipatory bail, stating that the accused was an influential person and a bail could hamper the ongoing investigations. Mr Hiremani also submitted that the accused had evaded several summons from the R.T. Nagar police.

The prosecution has also submitted telephonic conversation records along with the bills of the hotels and bars both Karthik and the victim visited as per her complaint with the police. He also submitted to the court that it was not possible to get the CCTV footage from the hotels, as they are retained only for 25 days by individual hotels in their respective servers. Earlier, the sessions judge Muddegowdar heard the arguments of B.V. Acharya, the defence lawyer appearing for Karthik Gowda.In his eight point argument he stated that there was four days difference in the travelling dates of Karthik Gowda and the complainant to Mangalore. Mr Acharya contended that there was no proof that Karthik had threatened the complainant, which negates the accusation of kidnap. Since the complainant repeatedly stated that Karthik was her husband, there cannot be any case of rape, he told the court.