Had it not been for Youtuber Sameer MD, perhaps the Soujanya rape and murder case would have been remained right where it was buried — into the bottomless pitt of crimes where a case first makes it to national headlines and then dies a slow death with time.
Even though the crime remains etched in Karnataka's collective memory, the investigative Youtube video brought along 18 million views, a revived frustration in the system and consequently an FIR on the maker.
On March 5, 2025, Cowl Bazaar Police filed a case on its own stating that the video in question was hurting the religious sentiments of people and also prejudicing people against Dharmasthala and its religious leaders.
On Tuesday, the Karnataka High Court stayed the FIR against the Youtuber. As for the video, it not just digs deeper into the case but nudges the system to answer why it failed in Soujanya's case.
The rape and murder
In October 2012, Soujanya, a 17-year-old college student from Belthangady was brutally raped and murdered. The second year Pre-University student of the Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara College did not return home on October 9. Her body was found the next day in the bushes near Nethravathi river with her hands tied to a tree with a shawl and her genitals soiled with mud.
Immense amount of public interest, uproar, media trials and multiple investigations by both CID, CBI and 11 years later, a Bengaluru court acquitted the lone accused Santhosh Rao of all the charges in 2023. The police had charged Santhosh Rao with the murder. He was allegedly wrongfully implicated and later acquitted by a Bengaluru Sessions Court on June 16, 2023.
After the acquittal, Soujanya's father Chandappa Gowda further pursued the case, petitioning for a fresh investigation by the CBI. In September 2024, the Karnataka High Court rejected the plea for a fresh probe into the 2012 case stating that, "no purpose will be served even if reinvestigation is permitted."
Even though the CBI court's verdict did expose certain lapses in the investigation, the real perpetrators were not just shielded with planted and tampered evidence but Santhosh Rao was wrongfully implicated. Soujanya's father passed away earlier this year in January after battling cancer. The real perpetrators, alleged by family to be at least 3 to 4 people involved in the crime, remain unfound and most probably at large.
Investigation against Santhosh Rao was based on primarily three things: his confession, recovery of his clothes, injury marks on his body. All these were eventually found not conclusive enough to implicate Rao.
The first twenty hours lost in the investigation where the crime scene was neither properly combed nor recorded, cost the case dearly. The doctor deposing before the court said that vaginal swabs, a very basic and also a critical piece of evidence known to any doctor, was improperly collected and preserved.
How nobody killed Soujanya
In some of the most unfortunate cases, the far serious crime begins after the rape and murder, it happens with wrongful conviction, in tampered evidence, planted suspects, in denied reinvestigation and in delayed justice.
Reportedly, throughout the legal proceedings, Soujanya's family maintained that Santhosh Rao had been wrongfully implicated, while highlighting the alleged flaws in the investigation. The parents even appealed to the authorities alleging that Veerendra Heggade, a religious leader from Dharamasthala was shielding the actual perpetrators.
The 39-minute video by Sameer also raises the same set of questions, thereby casting serious doubts on the unsolved murder and the botched up investigation by law enforcement agencies. Those wanting a revival of any conversation, on what happened, find themselves discouraged by law enforcement agencies.
In March 2025, a writers' convention scheduled on a Sunday to discuss and demand justice for the rape and murder of Soujanya was cancelled after the organisers received legal notices. Almost 14 years later, there is a closure to the legal proceedings but no closure for the case yet.
