Bengaluru: Police from Basaveshwara Nagar Police Station have arrested retired Bengaluru University professor Prof. B.C. Mailarappa on allegations of harassing a woman.
The arrest follows a complaint filed by a 37-year-old woman who accused Mailarappa of harassment. According to police, the woman had worked under Prof. Mailarappa at the Karnataka State Harijan Sevak Sangh starting in 2022 and resigned in May 2024.
Later in 2024, after the woman’s husband died under unnatural circumstances, her relatives filed a complaint accusing her of being responsible for his death. They also coerced her to transfer property registered in her name to them.
During this period, Prof. Mailarappa reportedly supported the woman in legal disputes regarding her husband’s death and the property issues at Mahalakshmi Police Station. Additionally, conflicts arose within the woman’s family over her father’s estate. Her brother filed a lawsuit to claim his share of the property with the help of a lawyer named Raghu.
Amid this ongoing family dispute, Prof. Mailarappa allegedly invited the woman to meet near a hotel in Rajajinagar under the pretext of presenting some documents for her signature. When she saw a statement in the document blaming lawyer Raghu for all her life troubles, she refused to sign. Upon questioning, Mailarappa became angry, verbally abused her on a public road, and allegedly assaulted her by pulling her hair.
Furthermore, he reportedly came near the woman’s home pressuring her to open the door and made obscene phone calls repeatedly.
Based on her complaint, cases were registered at Basaveshwara Nagar Police Station and Kamakshipalya Police Station—the latter for disturbing the residence of the woman’s lawyer’s relatives.
Currently, Prof. B.C. Mailarappa is in police custody, and investigation is ongoing, according to S. Girish, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru West Division.
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