Nearly three weeks after a 'whistleblower' senior state official was killed here sparking a national outrage, the police on Thursday arrested four persons, including an accountant in a cooperative society, and claimed to have cracked the case.
The police said the accountant had conspired with three of his associates to attack 48-year old Mahantesh, a Karnataka Administrative Service officer with the audit wing of the cooperative department, as he feared alleged misappropriation of funds by him in the society would be exposed.
The four nabbed on Wednesday by the city crime branch were indentified as Kiran Kumar, the accountant, Ayyappa, 24, Murali, 29, Shiva, 28, Police Commissioner Jyothi Prakash Mirji told mediapersons.
Kiran Kumar, the main accused, was allegedly involved in misappropriation of funds of the society which was being audited by Mahantesh. Fearing his malfeasance would come out, he had arranged the three others to attack Mahantesh on May 15.
Mahantesh, said to be a whistleblower in exposing some irregularities in cooperative societies, succumbed to injuries in a private hospital on May 20, triggering a national outrage over the fate met by the honest officer.
Initiating suo motu proceedings, the Karnataka high court had ordered issue of notice to the home secretary and the city police Commissioner based on newspaper reports regarding the death of Mahantesh, asking them to file a progress report on the matter by June 20.
Mirji said about 200 police personnel were deployed in cracking the murder, adding "it was a blind case and initially we had no positive clues about it."
Mirji said that after Mahantesh left the society in his car late evening of May 15, Kiran called up his three friends and told them about the officer's car number and his identification, asking them to attack him.
The three had followed Mahantesh in a car purchased by Kiran for this purpose only, he said.
The accused dashed their car against Mahantesh's vehicle when it was moving slolwy near a hotel and when he stopped it and got out to ascertain the damage, they rained blows on him.
As he fell down, one of them hit Mahantesh on the head with a cricket wicket, leaving him bleeding, and sped away. Mirji said the car used for committing the crime has been seized and hunt is on for another accused who is absconding.
"We are sure to nab him soon." To a question about involvement of any police officer in the crime, Mirji said "as of now there is no such information. However, we are investigating the case from all angles."
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