BENGALURU: The high court has granted bail to two transgenders who were accused of killing another transgender, Rajendra Kumar, in August last year.
Allowing the bail petitions filed by Devi alias Ashok Kumar and Nithya alias Ramakrishna — the first and second accused — Justice Sreenivas Harish Kumar pointed out that apart from there being no eye-witnesses, at this stage there is no prima facie material against the petitioners. The judge directed them to furnish a bail bond for Rs 2 lakh each with two sureties and mark their attendance before the jurisdictional police every Sunday, till conclusion of the trial. The judge also pointed out that incidentally, Bhavana alias Abdul, third accused in the case, is already out on bail.
On August 14, 2020, around 8.30pm, they abducted Rajendra in a hired car and took him to their house in Konappa Agrahara, allegedly beating him to death with a stick. Later, they took the body to Rajendra’s village to give an impression that he was assaulted by a truck driver. The court was also told that during investigation, police were able to recover the stick from the petitioners’ house. However, the petitioners disputed these contentions and claimed they took the deceased to his native village in Ramanagara.
The prosecution said the accused had murdered Rajendra — who collected money from motorists near the Nice Road toll plaza — because they were worried about their income reducing because of him.