Karnataka doctor booked for destorying evidence in woman home guard’s gang rape case, police say he was ‘hand in glove’ with accused

Karnataka Police have booked Dr Shivakumar V of a Koppal government hospital for allegedly destroying crucial forensic evidence in a gang rape investigation.

The Karnataka Police on December 26 booked a government hospital doctor in the Koppal district for allegedly destroying crucial evidence in an ongoing investigation into a gang rape case.

Dr Shivakumar V, a medical officer at a hospital in Koppal, has been accused of failing to properly preserve the collected evidence related to the alleged gang rape.

On November 17, four men allegedly gang-raped a 39-year-old woman home gaurd by spiking her juice and the woman was admitted to the district hospital, where Dr Shivakumar was the physician on duty. The police later arrested four men identified as Lakshman Kenchappa Karaguli, Basavaraj Sakreppa, Bhimappa Maski and Shashikumar Maski for the alleged gang-rape.

The police said the doctor was required to collect and preserve medical evidence, including DNA samples and other materials which come up to 16 items of evidence, for the ongoing investigation. However, he allegedly destroyed crucial materials needed for the case.

The doctor also allegedly made inappropriate and threatening remarks during the evidence collection process, stating he could manipulate or alter the evidence as he wished.

The incident came to light when investigators attempted to retrieve the preserved evidence for laboratory analysis and discovered it had allegedly been destroyed. The police obtained court permission on December 10 to file the case, though the registration was delayed pending judicial approval for the non-bailable offence.

A police officer said it looked like Dr Shivakumar was “hand in glove” with the accused and tampered with crucial evidence in the investigation.

The police booked Dr Shivakumar under Section 238 (b) [knowingly causes evidence of an offence to disappear or gives false information to shield an offender from legal punishment] of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

“We have issued notice to Dr Shivakumar to appear before the police for questioning, and the probe will continue,” a police officer said.