Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) B.R. Ravikante Gowda on Sunday said four teams have been formed to investigate the case. The police had already formed two teams and two more will be added to hasten the investigation, he added.
“We have vital clues and the accused will be arrested soon. Our teams are going through audit reports prepared by Mr Mahantesh during his tenure in the City over the last two-and-half-years and also the previous years to get further clues on the murder. We expect to arrest the accused within a week. High Grounds police have changed the attempt to murder case into murder case. Both personal and professional angles are being investigated,” he said. “Mr Mahantesh’s audit reports point to some people, who have grossly violated rules. We are also verifying both land line and mobile phone call details.
“Calls have been made either early in the morning or late in the night from different landlines in and around the city. Over 20 persons have been questioned. The assailants followed Mr Mahantesh from Sahakarnagar, where he was reviewing some documents. They could not attack him on Bellary Road as a lot of vehicles move around on the stretch. They moved in and attacked Mr Mahantesh when he reached the lonely and dark stretch next to Atria Hotel,” an investigating officer said.
The police are also not ruling out the possibility of a professional gang carrying out the attack after getting ‘supari’, or a contract to kill the officer. Mr Mahantesh had escaped an attack on Bannerghatta Road four months ago. The police are now investigating whether it was the same gang behind the latest attack. Home Minister R. Ashok said, “The government is doing everything possible to provide justice to the family members of Mahantesh,” he added.