Karnataka BJP leader’s murder: CBI files charge sheet against ex-minister Vinay Kulkarni, 2 others

HIGHLIGHTS

• The CBI has filed a charge sheet against former minister in the Congress-led Karnataka government Vinay Kulkarni and two others in connection with the 2016 murder of Yogesh Gowda, a BJP zilla panchayat member in Dharwad, officials said Tuesday.

• Besides Kulkarni, the agency has filed the charge sheet against Chandrashekhar Indi and Shivananand Birdar in a special court in Dharwad, they said.

• The agency has alleged that the accused had personal enmity and political rivalry with Gowda who rejected their offer to withdraw from the zilla panchayat elections in 2016.

• “Investigations revealed that the Ex-Minister allegedly conspired with his close associates and in pursuance thereof, one of his associates agreed to execute the murder. It was further alleged that a land deal was entered by the accused and a purported land dispute was portrayed as a motive for the murder. Further, three country-made pistols were also seized by CBI,” CBI spokesperson R C Joshi said.

• Officials said the killers who had come from Bengaluru were made to stay at a resort owned by a confidant of Kulkarni on June 7, 2016 during the first attempt of murder, they said.

• The spokesperson said the CBI investigation revealed that an associate of Kulkarni arranged other accused from Bangalore and they visited Dharwad on two occasions.

• “On the first occasion, they stayed in a resort at Dandelli allegedly arranged by the said accused (Kulkarni). They allegedly committed the murder during their second attempt. These accused fled after the commission of crime,” the spokesperson said.

• Kulkarni had won the Dharwad Assembly seat in 2013, but was defeated in 2018 by the BJP’s Amrut Ayyappa Desai.

• Gowda, a BJP zilla panchayat member, was killed in his gym on June 15, 2016 by unidentified men, they said.

• The agency has taken over the probe on the recommendation of the Karnataka government, they said.

• The probe by the local police cited property dispute as the reason behind the murder while the CBI probe shows it to be a political murder, they said.