Bengaluru: In a major breakthrough highlighting the pivotal role of digital forensics in criminal probes, a special investigation team (SIT) has filed a fresh chargesheet against police sub-inspector Ramesh SV, accusing him of abetting the suicide of his 29-year-old wife V Shilpa in 2023. Shilpa had left behind a death note accusing Ramesh of harassing her. Ramesh allegedly took away the note and produced it only after his arrest.Data recovered from Shilpa’s laptop and mobile phone revealed evidence of 11 months of alleged domestic abuse and financial deprivation, giving a fresh direction to what had initially been investigated as a dowry-death case.Shilpa was found dead at her residence in Patel Layout, Begur, in June 2023. Her father, Venkatarayappa, challenged the initial investigation, alleging that Ramesh had murdered his daughter and staged her death as a hanging. He approached Karnataka high court seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).The high court ordered a fresh probe by a three-member SIT headed by senior IPS officer Roopa Moudgil, with IPS officer Anup Shetty and ACP T Rangappa as members. The court’s Jan 30, 2026 order records that the original chargesheet had dropped the murder charge and retained other offences. It directed SIT to conduct a fresh investigation.Data recoveryThe investigation took a turn after SIT sent Shilpa’s laptop and mobile phone to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) for data recovery. Investigators recovered a six-page death note typed on her laptop months before her death. Shilpa described an 11-month ordeal involving isolation and confinement, alleging that Ramesh, who was reluctant to marry her, had cut her off from friends and family and kept her confined at home.She also alleged that she was denied money even for basic necessities, writing: “I don’t have money to purchase sanitary pads.” Forensic analysis is said to have established that the digital document was authored by Shilpa.SIT also recovered recordings of phone conversations between the couple containing alleged verbal abuse. FSL voice analysis confirmed the voices as those of Ramesh and Shilpa. Messages recovered from Shilpa’s phone allegedly recorded repeated physical assaults. These allegations were also supported by medical evidence, with the autopsy recording multiple injuries sustained before her death. The high court had earlier taken note of the injuries while considering Ramesh’s bail plea.The fresh chargesheet primarily accuses Ramesh of abetting Shilpa’s suicide through harassment. SIT has also added witnesses who allegedly confirmed that Ramesh was not interested in marrying her.According to the investigators, the couple had been in love, but Ramesh later distanced himself. “Shilpa and her father approached Begur police seeking intervention, following which Ramesh’s colleagues and others advised him to marry her. He abused her on the basis of her caste and told her he had better marriage proposals,” an SIT source said.Model investigation: JudgeJustice M Nagaprasanna praised the SIT’s investigation, saying the fresh probe demonstrated how an investigation should independently and comprehensively pursue the truth rather than simply repeat the shortcomings of an earlier probe.“Such investigation reaffirms the faith of citizens in the administration of criminal justice and reinforces the constitutional promise that the truth shall not become a casualty of circumstances… (it) stands as an exemplar of how a de novo investigation ought to be undertaken — not as a ritualistic repetition of earlier efforts, but as an independent, comprehensive and truth-oriented search, uninfluenced by previous conclusions and unencumbered by institutional baggage,” he said.
