Man who stabbed Lokayukta sent to 5-day Police custody

Bengaluru: Tejraj Sharma, who stabbed Karnataka Lokayukta Justice P. Vishwanath Shetty at the Lokayukta office in Bengaluru yesterday, has been remanded to Police custody for five days.

The accused was produced before a Magistrate at 3 am today and he was sent to Police custody.

Karnataka’s most senior anti-corruption officer, its Lokayukta, was hospitalised yesterday after he was stabbed repeatedly. Justice Vishwanath Shetty, a former High Court Judge who was named the State’s anti-corruption ombudsman last year, was attacked by 33-year-old Tejraj Sharma who went to him with a complaint and was told that the case had been shut.

Tejraj Sharma had complained about not getting a contract he had applied for. Justice Shetty reportedly told him that his case was examined and shut. “Something happened, he lost his temper, took out a knife from his pocket and stabbed Justice Shetty two-three times before being restrained,” said a Police Officer.

Justice Shetty, 73, who sustained major injuries in his chest and abdomen, underwent a four-hour surgery at Mallya Hospital located close to the office. “He is conscious and speaking,” Dr. Diwakar Bhat of the Hospital said.

Sharma, a furniture businessman, entered the Lokayukta office armed with a knife around 12.45 pm. The weapon had gone unnoticed since the metal detector at the main entrance was dysfunctional.

It was around 1.50 pm that he walked into the Lokayukta’s chamber and attacked him. Security personnel and other staff members rushed in when Justice Shetty raised an alarm and found him in a pool of blood. He was immediately taken to hospital.