New Delhi, June 3 (IANS) The CBI has examined three IPS officers, including a retired Commissioner, in connection with BJP worker Yogesh Gowda murder case in Bengaluru, official sources said.
Gowda, a Zila Panchayat member, was murdered on June 15, 2016 in a gym in Saptapur in Karnataka’s Dharwad. The agency took over the probe on the recommendation of the Karnataka government on September 24, 2019.
Pandu Rangrane (then retired Commissioner Hubli, Dharwad), Jinendra Khanagavi (then DCP Dharwad and Presently SP Security Division Bengaluru), and Mallikarjun Baladandi (then DCP Crime and Traffic Dharwad and presently Additional SP Haveri) were examined earlier this week at the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) office in Bengaluru. “These policemen were the supervisory officers in Dharwad during the investigation of Yogesh Gowda murder case by the local police in 2016,” said a source, privy to the investigation.
The Police had registered a case against six accused, who are all residents of Dharwad. After taking over the investigation on September 24 last year, the CBI arrested eight persons, of whom seven are in judicial custody and one is out on bail. In May, the CBI also filed a chargesheet against the eight people. The investigation agency said the accused had allegedly come to Dharwad on two occasions in June 2016 and with the support of the other accused allegedly planned the crime.
Earlier, the Karnataka Police had filed a chargesheet in the murder case on September 9, 2016.
According to the CBI, Gowda ran a gym in Dharwad and was a friend of Basavaraj Shivappa Muttagi, the prime accused, for the last 10 years, both with different political inclinations. Gowda came to know about a land purchase deal by Muttagi. As per the CBI, Gowda had threatened Muttagi that he should not purchase the land as it was under his custody and if he still proceeded, he would kill him.
Gowda was, however, killed in his gym by accomplices of Muttagi, who first sprinkled chilli powder on his face before hacking him to death.
–IAN
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