Ex-min named prime accused in BJP leader's murder case

Bengaluru: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday filed a supplementary charge sheet against three persons, including former Karnataka minister and Congress leader Vinay Kulkarni, in connection with the 2016 murder of Yogesh Gowda, a BJP district panchayat member.

In the supplementary charge sheet, the investigating agency named Vinay Kulkarni as the prime accused. Vinay's close relative Chandrashekhar Indi of Vijaypura is the second accused and Shivanand Biradar the third.

The BJP had asked the CBI to take over the probe in July 2019 after coming to power since the case was reported during the Congress-JD(S) coalition government in the State. Kulkarni was arrest in November 2020 after intense questioning lasting for an entire day. The CBI had arrested eight other accused and filed charge sheets on May 20, 2020. Santosh Savadatti of Dharwad, Dinesh M, Sunil K S, Harshith, Aswath S, Nazeer Ahamad, Shanawaz and Nutan S all from Bengaluru and other places have been named as accused in the charge sheet.

Kulkarni has been in judicial custody in Hindalaga Central Prison in Belagavi. His bail applications have been rejected by the lower court and High Court. His judicial custody is to end on February 5 and the CBI was to file the charge sheet within 90 days of his arrest. The CBI will produce him before the court on February 5.

"CBI investigation has revealed that an associate of the said accused (former minister) conspired with others from Bengaluru and they visited Dharwad on two occasions as part of their plot to kill the BJP leader. On the first occasion, they stayed in a resort at Dandeli allegedly arranged by the accused. They allegedly committed the murder during their second attempt. These accused fled after commission of crime," the charge sheet maintained.

In their statement Yogesh Gowda's family members the victim had received a letter the night before his murder, stating that Vinay Kulkarni had purportedly hatched a plot to kill him. It was alleged that Kulkarni had personal enmity and political rivalry with Yogesh Gowda who had declined the request to step back from contesting the Panchayat election in 2016.

At the time of arrest, CBI had said that Kulkarni was being evasive in his replies during the questioning and that they needed to conduct a custodial interrogation to extract further information. Even former home minister and senior Congress leader G Parameshwara was questioned by the CBI in connection with the case.

The Karnataka police in 2016 charged six persons from Dharwad -- Basavaraj Mutagi, Vikram Ballari, Keerthi Kumar, Sandeep Savadatti, Vinayak Katagi and Mahabaleshwar Hongal alias Muduka.

Kulkarni had won the Dharwad seat in 2013 but could not repeat the victory in 2018 when the BJP's Amrut Ayyappa Desai defeated him in the Assembly polls. He was, for a brief while, speculated to join the BJP days prior to his arrest. He had even gone to Rajasthan to meet BJP national general secretary (Organisation), BL Santhosh, along with now Karnataka minister CP Yogeeshwar. He was then reportedly denied an appointment by Santosh.