The Supreme Court on Monday ordered a fresh investigation into the 2012 rape and murder of 17-year-old Sowjanya in the Dharmasthala area of Karnataka. The court directed that the new probe be completed within three months and a report submitted to it. According to reports, the court has also directed that officials who handled the earlier investigation must not be part of the new team.
Sowjanya, from the Ujire area, was raped and murdered in October 2012. The case was first investigated by the Karnataka CID and later by the CBI, but her killer has still not been identified. Police arrested Santosh Rao in connection with the crime, but a special CBI court acquitted him in June 2023, citing a lack of proper evidence. The central question of who murdered Sowjanya has therefore remained unanswered.
Sowjanya’s mother, Kusumavathi, approached the court seeking a reinvestigation. She alleged that some important evidence had not been properly examined in the earlier probe. The Karnataka High Court dismissed her petition in 2024. It remarked, however, that in view of Santosh Rao’s acquittal, it was necessary to examine whether someone else could have been responsible for the crime.
The case returned to public discussion in 2025, when a former sanitation worker from the Dharmasthala area alleged that hundreds of bodies had been buried or burned, including those of women and students. He also handed some photographs to the authorities. The Karnataka government subsequently constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to examine the claims. These allegations have not been established.
The SIT’s inquiry focused mainly on the former worker’s claims about the bodies. Officials said at the time that a court order would be needed to reopen the Sowjanya case specifically. The SIT later arrested the man in a case related to false testimony. With the Supreme Court’s latest order, a new investigation into Sowjanya’s murder will now begin.