ORAL ORDER

In the captioned petition, petitioner is seeking quashing of the proceedings pending in C.C.No.9/2024 for the offence punishable under Section 193 of IPC.

2. The facts leading to the case are as under:

Petitioner a police constable with 1^st Battalion, Karnataka State Reserve Police, Bengaluru, was previously working as a Secretary personnel/Supervisor in the premises of McGann Hospital situated at Shivamogga. During his tenure a minor girl was kidnapped from the said hospital and sexually assaulted by four accused persons on the intervening night of 5.12.2020 and 6.12.2020. A crime was registered and on conclusion of investigation, final report was filed against four accused persons for the offence punishable under Sections 366, 376, 506 of IPC, Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 and Section 3(1)(w)(i)(ii), 3(2)(v) of the Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribes(Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

3. The petitioner who was cited as a prosecution witness was examined as P.W.7. During the course of cross-examination, since he was partly treated as hostile, petitioner was confronted with the statements made by petitioner under Section 161(3) of Cr