• Son of former K.R. Pet MLA among eight persons arrested
• Killers move around with body in car; Dump body near Malavalli on advice from Police Officer

Malavalli: Malavalli Rural Police have arrested eight persons including the son of former K.R. Pet MLA K.B. Chandrashekar, on charges of allegedly killing a person, who had cheated them in rice pulling racket.

Those arrested are former MLA’s son Dr. Srikanth, former Gram Panchayat Member 40-year-old Kumar, 26-year-old Abhishek, 23-year-old Manjunath alias Manju, 32-year-old Puneeth, 24-year-old Anand, 24-year-old Vajramuni alias Vickey and 37-year-old Shiva alias Somashekar. The accused, after killing one Saleem (40), a native of Kollegal, had wrapped the body in a tarpaulin sheet and had dumped it on the side of a highway near Panditahalli in Malavalli taluk, it is learnt.

Details: It is learnt that Saleem, who was involved in rice pulling racket was cheating people. Saleem, who was in touch with Dr. Srikanth, had struck a deal for a large sum and had taken Rs. 5 lakh as advance from the accused. Dr. Srikanth, who came to know that rice pulling was fake and was a racket, called Saleem near Yelwal in Mysuru on Feb. 7 and questioned Saleem of cheating him. Soon wordy duel ensued between them and in a fit of rage, Dr. Srikanth and others allegedly assaulted Saleem resulting in his (Saleem) death.

Not knowing what to do, Dr. Srikanth, kept the body in his car and on Feb. 8, he (Dr. Srikanth) contacted a Police Officer, who had earlier served as the Sub-Inspector at K.R. Pet. On the advice of the Police Officer, Dr. Srikanth got the body of Saleem wrapped in a tarpaulin sheet and dumped the same near Pandithahalli.

It is learnt that the Police Officer had advised them to dump the body in Belakavadi Police limits and three of them were supposed to surrender before the Cops. But due to confusion, the accused had dumped the body of Saleem about 500 mts interior, which comes under Malavalli Rural Police limits. On Feb. 9, based on the information from villagers, Malavalli Rural Police found the body in their limits and on inspection, the Police came to know that the man was murdered somewhere else and the miscreants had dumped the body here. But before Malavalli Rural Police could register a case, accused Manjunath, Anand and Vickey came to the Police Station and surrendered, which gave rise to suspicion.

Inspector Rajesh, who suspected that the man may have been murdered by some influential person, had asked the three to surrender before the Cops, grilled the three persons who spilled the beans, sources said.

Malavalli Sub-Division Dy.SP Lakshminarayan guided the Police in their investigation and based on the clues provided by those who had surrendered, the Police summoned Dr. Srikanth to the Police Station for questioning and a total of eight persons including Dr. Srikanth was arrested.