Prison chief to face probe over inmate’s threat to murder witnesses

Bengaluru: Following allegations that an inmate of Central Prison, Bengaluru, threatened the witnesses in a rowdy murder case, a city court ordered an inquiry against the superintendent of prison.
The court directed the investigating officer (IO) to provide protection to the witnesses until the conclusion of the trial.
Somashekar alias Salaga Soma, a rowdy arrested in the case, reportedly sent video messages through Instagram to a 22-year-old autorickshaw driver, Armugam M, a resident of LR Nagar quarters in Adugodi.Armugam filed a complaint with the CCB police on Oct 7, stating that he knew Joseph Babu alias Babli, who was allegedly killed on July 19, 2021, in a bank at Koramangala. Salaga Soma was arrested for allegedly murdering Babli.
Armugam received three voice messages on his Instagram account from an account named Salaga Soma around 7am on Sept 22. The messages, in Kannada and Tamil, instructed him to inform Babli's wife, Naada, George, and Suneel alias Sundali not to testify in court. The messages threatened that if they testified, they would be killed. The message further stated that they had already got Military Satisha killed.
Another message contained abuses against Babli's wife. The message warned Armugam to pass the message to the above witnesses, and if he failed, they would teach him a lesson as they were already watching his movements from jail and knew he was an autorickshaw driver. Armugam informed the witnesses about the threat, and based on their advice, he lodged a complaint. Rowdy Military Satisha was hacked to death by a gang on Jan 24 this year. A case was registered at CCB Bengaluru City police station on Oct 9 under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 232 (threatening any person to give false evidence), 351 (2, 3, 4) - (criminal intimidation), 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), and under the Karnataka Prisoners Act.
During the hearing of Babli's murder case on Tuesday, the court mentioned that a case was registered at CCB police station and the contents of the FIR indicate that the accused sent a message to Armugam.
The judge said it has to be ascertained from where the accused obtained a mobile phone to send such a message, which was a lapse on the part of the superintendent of Central Jail. The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Prison, was requested to conduct an inquiry against the superintendent regarding how Soma got access to the phone.