Karthik grilled again, cops to check out call records, texts

www.mangaloretoday.com

Bangalore, Sep 14, 2014: Police officials are said to have stumbled on an interesting point in Karthik Gowda’s alleged kidnap and rape case: according to highly-placed sources, mobile tower software revealed that both Karthik and the film actor were in Bangalore on June 4 and June 5, the day she claims Karthik married her in Mangalore.

Karthik was questioned on Saturday too on all the allegations raised by the actor including the trip to Mangalore where he allegedly married the starlet.Sources said Karthik denied all charges, but admitted that he knew the complainant but did not marry or cheat her.

"This is a disputable issue and we will investigate the call lists, retrieve the number of text messages exchanged between them and the actor’s conversations with Karthik’s mother Datty Gowda. They both own more than two mobile phones, and that’s why there’s this confusion," a senior police officer said.

Around 10.15am on Saturday, Karthik Gowda appeared before investigating officials at RT Nagar police station, accompanied by his advocate and a friend in his silver Skoda. He was interrogated for eight hours on Friday.

Karthik, 27, son of Union minister DV Sadananda Gowda, is charged with kidnap and rape by a small-time actor who disclosed her relationship on the day he got engaged to a girl in the town of Kushalnagar, last month. The actor filed a case against Karthik, following which he went underground for two weeks, and surfaced on Friday. In the interim, he applied for and got anticipatory bail.

Police are also contemplating visiting Mangalore, Mysore and other places claimed to have been visited by Karthik and the film actor together; they include some local bars and restaurants in the city too. "Our efforts to collect video clippings from CCTV footage in some hotels and restaurants have gone in vain as the videos are stored only for a month. The images get erased after that. But we are trying to get the hotel register where both claimed to have stayed," a police officer said.

According to sources, Karthik was asked to explain his relationship with the actor in detail. "Based on material evidence given by the actor, we questioned Karthik. We were particular about the places, dates and the time they spent together. We have taken call detail records of Karthik and the actor. It seems she used different mobile numbers while texting and calling Karthik. Some answers are satisfactory, while a few questions were not answered properly," sources said.

It was around 6.05pm when Karthik came out of the station, got into the front passenger seat and sped away. According to police, Karthik Gowda reiterated that he did not kidnap the actor or rape her," DCP (North) TR Suresh said.

Speech Test After Court Permission
The IO has decided to conduct a speech test on Karthik Gowda to ascertain if the male voice in the CD of telephone conversations released by Maitreya belongs to him or not. A police officer said they will discuss the issue with senior officers and file an affidavit before the court seeking permission to conduct a speech test. DCP Suresh said, “Once we get permission from the court, he will be taken for a speech test.”