Kolar: Two held for Congress leader’s killing shot in leg by cops
He said the prime accused had a grudge against the deceased since last seven years due to personal reasons and hatched a plan to kill the leader.
Two of the three men arrested in connection with the murder of Congress leader M Srinivas — a close associate of Karnataka home minister G Parameshwara — were shot in the legs after they allegedly tried to attack police personnel in an attempt to escape in Kolar district, police officers said.
Police said the incident took place on Tuesday when a police team went to arrest the accused. “Police personnel fired in self-defence,” a senior officer said, declining to be named.
The two accused — Venugopal and Muneendra — were shot in the legs while another accused Santhosh sustained injuries while trying to escape in the Laxmisagar forest area. The three were being brought by a team led by police inspector Venkatesh after their arrest.
Inspector Venkatesh, police officers Manjunath and Nagesh also sustained injuries during the attack. The injured accused are being treated at Kolar district hospital, the officer said.
“On Tuesday, the police identified all the six accused, who had hacked Srinivas to death near Hogalagere road in the outskirts of Srinivaspur near Kolar,” Kolar police said, adding though Srinivas was rushed to the hospital, he succumbed to his injuries.
Srinivas was one of the prominent Dalit leaders of the district.
According to the police, all accused belong to the Dalit community. “The accused, identified as Venugopal, Munendra, Santhosh, Nagendra, Harshit and Arun Kumar, are aged between 22 to 35 years,” the officer cited above said.
“The prime accused in the case has a tattoo of former [assembly] speaker Ramesh Kumar on his chest,” Kolar superintendent of police (SP) M Narayana told HT.
He said the prime accused had a grudge against the deceased since the last seven years due to personal reasons and hatched a plan to kill the leader and carried out attack with his friends.
“We have registered a case against all the accused under sections 302 (murder) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy to commit offence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC),” the SP said.
The funeral of Srinivas was held at his farm house in Srinivaspura taluk on Tuesday. Thousands of people attended the funeral and paid their last respects, including former railway minister KH Muniyappa, and former assembly speaker Ramesh Kumar among others.
According to the police, Srinivas had gone to inspect the under-construction building site in Mulabagilu road on outskirts of Srinivasapura taluk centre. The accused, who followed him for two days before the crime, attacked him while he was sitting under a tree at the construction site, police said.
The six accused, who arrived at the spot, attacked Srinivas with machetes and other weapons. Srinivas sustained severe injury on his head and died on Monday.