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Editor of Kannada paper detained for hatching conspiracy to get colleague killed
Belagere, editor of ‘Hai Bangalore’, was recently in the news after the Karnataka assembly convicted him of breach of privilege and sentenced him to a year in jail
Ravi Belagere, editor of a Kannada tabloid, was detained by police officials from the city crime branch on Friday after they stumbled upon a conspiracy allegedly hatched by the journalist to get his colleague killed by sharp shooters.
Belagere, editor of ‘Hai Bangalore’, had recently been in the news after the Karnataka assembly convicted him of breach of privilege and sentenced him to a year in jail.
Karnataka high court had ordered a stay on this earlier this week. Addressing the press, police commissioner T Suneel Kumar said a person called Tahir Hussain had been arrested by the crime branch police on December 3 for illegally selling guns. During interrogation he informed the police about another dealer called Shashidhar Mundevadi.
According to Kumar, Mundewadi was given a supari on August 28 by Belagere to murder his colleague Sunil Heggaravalli, and the editor had paid him Rs 15,000 as advance, with the promise of giving the sharp shooter any amount he wanted once the job was completed.
K Divakar, Belagere’s lawyer, rubbished the charges. “These are concocted charges. Even if we accept that the advance payment was made, how can we believe that the sharp shooter took up the assignment without finalising a fee,” he said. Divakar said he was applying for bail and that Belagere was not in a state to be taken into custody.
