The Nelamangala police and Central Crime Branch sleuths, in a joint operation, have arrested 12 assailants who hacked to death Bangalore Rural Zilla Panchayat JD(S) member BEML Krishnappa last week. They are said to be the associates of gangster Bettanagere Seena alias Srinivas. Each killer has allegedly received Rs 50,000 for contract killing or supari from Seena.
All the accused were produced before the Nelamangala Judicial Magistrate First Class court on Monday were sent to police custody till August 4. The police have launched a manhunt for the prime accused Bettanagere Seena. The 12 accused have been identified as Ravikumar alias Ravi (23) of Doddabelavangala, Muniraju alias Macchu Muniya (29), Vijaykumar alias Viji (20), Shivakumar alias Shiva (25), Ananda (24) and Ravikumar alias Ravi (22), all from Handarahalli of Peenya 2nd stage, Ravikumar alias Vandal Ravi (30) of Nelamangala, Umesh (24) of Solur, Abishek (19) of Nelamangala Town, Govindaraju alias H. Govinda (27) of Sunkadakatte, Shivakumar alias Shiva alias Jonty (23) of Hombalammapet and Praveen (20) of Ramanagar.
Addressing a press conference at the Nelamangala Town police station, Bengaluru Rural SP Dr. Prakash said the arrested rowdies were hired by Seena for Rs 50,000 each. Seena had also assured the accused that he would provide their families with money every month if they were caught by the police, he added. The SP said Seena met nearly 30-40 rowdies for executing the murder. The meeting was held at a resort in Nelamangala just a day before Krishnappa was killed on July 26. As per the plan, the accused chased Krishnappa's motorcade in a Tempo Traveller, a van, a Canter and other vehicles and finally killed Krishnappa with gun shots and other lethal weapons, the SP said.
One of the assailants, Lakshminarayana alias Lakshamana alias Devva, was shot dead by Krishnappa's gunman. The accused have been booked under Sections 143, 147, 148, 341, 307, 302 and 149 of the IPC and under Arms Act. The police are still on the lookout for Seena, Bande Manja, Harsha and others, who are the kingpins.