Bengaluru: A section of lawyers in Bengaluru held a silent protest march to show their solidarity in the Dalit lawyer suicide case.  It is said that Dalit lawyer was continuously harassed by her local corporator and associates.

Dharani, a resident of Vivekananda Stree in Narayanpura ward was found dead in her house by her mother. She was 25.

The young lawyer had registered a complaint with Mahadevapura police against Congress corporator V Suresh and his associates who had disconnected water and electricity supply in her house. The complaint said that the corporator was pressurising the mother-daughter duo to give up the property that they were living in. 

Following her death, police have registered an FIR under SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act and abetment to suicide. A section of lawyers are now contemplating filing a writ petition at the Karnataka High Court. A senior advocate at the Karnataka High Court, C Balan led the protest on Thursday blaming the police apathy in investigating Dharani’s suicide.

Balan told TNM “She (Dharani) had a small property 10×20 feet, the local goon corporator tried to encroach it. She had been fighting against them for some time and had approached the jurisdictional ACP Krishnappa. Then when it did not help, she even met the commissioner. The commissioner, in turn, asked her to meet the DCP. But the DCP also stood in favour of the corporator.”

According to reports, Dharani was constantly harassed and physically beaten. The witnesses whom she took to DCP and ACP were also threatened. The reports also mention a probable getting together of the police and the real estate mafia in this case.