Karnataka whistleblower murder: four arrested

Bangalore: Nearly three weeks after a ‘whistleblower’ senior state official was killed here sparking a national outrage, police today arrested four persons, including an accountant in a cooperative society, and claimed to have cracked the case. Police said the accountant had conspired with three of his associates to attack 48-year old Mahantesh, a Karnataka Administrative Service officer with the audit wing of the cooperative department, as he feared alleged misappropriation of funds by him in the society would be exposed. [caption id=“attachment_335870” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Image of the murdered official Mahantesh. Screen grab from CNN IBN”]  [/caption] The four nabbed yesterday by the City Crime Branch (CCB) were indentified as Kiran Kumar, the accountant, Ayyappa (24), Murali (29), Shiva (28), Police Commissioner Jyothi Prakash Mirji told reporters here. Kiran Kumar, the main accused, was allegedly involved in misappropriation of funds of the society which was being audited by Mahantesh. Fearing his malfeasance would come out, he had arranged the three others to attack Mahantesh on 15 May. Mahantesh, said to be a whistleblower in exposing some irregularities in cooperative societies, succumbed to injuries in a private hospital on May 20, triggering a national outrage over the fate met by the honest officer. Initiating suo motu proceedings, the Karnataka High Court had ordered issue of notice to the Home Secretary and the City Police Commissioner based on newspaper reports regarding the death of Mahantesh, asking them to file a progress report on the matter by 20 June. Mirji said about 200 police personnel were deployed in cracking the murder, adding “it was a blind case and intially we had no positive clues about it.” PTI