The Karnataka High Court has granted bail to six persons who have been accused of murdering two persons at a farmhouse in Hunsur nine years back. The Court, however, did not grant bail to former Corporator C. Mahadesh alias Avva Madesha and his brother C. Manjunath who were also among the accused. In all, eight persons were accused of the double murder.

Palahalli Satish, Ravi alias Katte Ravi, Ambarish alias Ambi, Karthik alias JK, Chandru and Kalappa have been granted bail by the High Court’s Two-Judge Bench comprising B.S. Patil and B.A. Nagarathna. Rejecting the bail application of Avva Madesha and his brother C. Manjunath, the Judges observed that as Chandru and Kalappa are also accused in the murder case of Devu alias Devendra and they have been charged under Karnataka Organised Crime Control Act (KOCCA), they will not be released even if they have obtained bail in the Hunsur double murder case.

The accused had murdered Rajesh alias Gandhi and Ramu at a farmhouse in Hunsur in 2008. Hearing the case, the Second Additional Sessions Judge in Mysuru Vijaya Kumar M. Anandashetty had sentenced all the eight accused including Avva Madesha and his brother C. Manjunath into life imprisonment on Feb. 26, 2016.

The accused had then approached the High Court for bail. According to Avva Madesh’s advocate H.S. Chandramouli, one witness to the alleged murder had obtained treatment at a hospital and he had told the doctors that he did not know the murderers and they were strangers. “But after two hours, he has rattled off many names to the Police. The same witness turned hostile when the case came up for hearing in the Court and told the Judge that he could not identify them,” the advocate said.

“I brought these changing statements of the witness before the Judge who granted bail to 6 persons. As Avva Madesha and Manjunath are booked under KOCCA and they are also involved in another murder case, they have to remain in the jail,” he said an added that they will go for higher appeal.