Mysuru — In a dramatic legal twist, a tribal man wrongly imprisoned for nearly two years for allegedly murdering his wife has now approached the Karnataka High Court. Suresh, a resident of Basavanahalli in Kushalnagar taluk and part of the Kuruba community, is seeking ₹5 crore in compensation and criminal charges against the police officers responsible for his arrest—after his wife resurfaced alive.
Back in April 2025, Suresh was fully acquitted by Mysuru’s 5th Additional District and Sessions Court, which also directed the home department to pay ₹1 lakh as compensation. However, finding the amount grossly inadequate, Suresh has now filed a criminal appeal in the High Court.
He has named five officers in his petition—then IO Prakash B J, ASP Jitendra Kumar, SIs Prakash Yattimani and Mahesh B K, and ASI Somashekar—accusing them of falsifying evidence, abusing authority, and arresting him without due process.
The ordeal began before 2021 when Suresh reported his wife Mallige missing. In 2022, skeletal remains found in Bettadapura police limits were wrongly presumed to be hers. Despite DNA results showing no match, police arrested Suresh for murder.
He spent around 18 months in jail until the court finally acknowledged the DNA mismatch. Then, in April 2025, Mallige was found alive in a Madikeri restaurant. Her sudden reappearance has triggered a deeper probe into the handling of the case and raised suspicions of negligence or misconduct.
Suresh now also seeks that the word “accused” in his judgment be replaced with “scapegoat.”