Karnataka ex-minister facing rape charges eludes police

BANGALORE - Haratalu Halappa, who quit as Karnataka minister Sunday following rape charges, seems to have gone into hiding prompting police to stick notices at his residences for appearance before them by May 10, an official said here Thursday.

Police did not find Halappa at his residences in Bangalore, his assembly constituency Sorab in Shimoga district, about 270 km from here, and the room at the Legislators’ Home here.

“Since all the three places were locked, we have pasted notices asking him to appear before us before May 10,” a spokesperson for the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), probing the rape charges, told reporters.

Halappa has been charged with raping his friend’s wife Nov 26, 2009 at her residence in Shimoga.

Halappa quit as food and civil supplies minister May 2, within hours of a leading Kannada daily reporting the incident.

Late Sunday night Halappa’s friend Venkatesha Murthy and his wife Chandravathy met the state police chief Ajai Kumar Singh and gave a 12-page complaint detailing the incident and subsequent developments.

They filed a complaint in Shimoga Monday following which six cases relating to rape, wrongful restraint and confinement and criminal intimidation have been registered.

The case has been handed over to CID on orders of Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa.

The couple has defended the delay in filing the case saying Halappa had threatened them of dire consequences if they reported the matter to the police.

“We decided to make public the incident and approach the police now as he started threatening he would harm our children,” Murthy told reporters Sunday.

Halappa has denied the charges against him. However, Murthy has released what he claims as pictures he shot with his mobile phone showing a semi-nude Halappa. In another clipping Chandravathy is shown weeping and telling that Halappa had sexually assaulted her.