Police personnel fail to appear for magisterial enquiry

Twelve police personnel, involved in the police firing in the city on December 19, 2019, failed to appear for magisterial enquiry on Tuesday.

Accordingly, the hearing was postponed to March 4.

The magisterial enquiry is conducted by Udupi Deputy Commissioner G Jagadeesha.

As many as 204 persons, including injured, have appeared before the magistrate till now and have submitted their statements on the incident.

ACP K U Belliappa had submitted a list of 176 police personnel who will depose before the enquiry. Of which, 12 personnel were supposed appear for the hearing on Tuesday.

Jagadeesha begun the hearing at AC’s Court Hall in Mini Vidhana Soudha in Hampankatta on Tuesday morning.

Belliappa submitted additional documents related to the incident and said that the police personnel and officers were assigned important work and could not attend the hearing.

The magistrate issued notice to 37 police officers and personnel to attend in person for the inquiry on March 4.

Mangaluru Commissioner of Police Dr P S Harsha and DCP (Law and order) Arunangshu Giri were supposed to depose before the magistrate.

As detailed statements of the two officers had to be documented, it was decided to schedule the recording of the statement to another date.