BENGALURU: Noted journalist and editor of Hai Bangalore Kannada weekly tabloid, Ravi Belagere, 59, was arrested by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) police on Friday afternoon, on charges of giving supari (contract) to a sharp shooter to eliminate his colleague, Sunil Heggaravalli. It is alleged that Belagere wanted to finish Heggaravalli off as he allegedly had an illicit affair with the former's second wife.
Belagere’s arrest came after an alleged sharp shooter, Shashidhara Ramachadra Mundewadi, was arrested by the CCB police on Wednesday night. However, Belagere is said to have denied the allegations against him and told the interrogators that he had no connection with the incident.
Police Commissioner T. Suneel Kumar said that the CCB police had arrested Tahir Hussain alias Anoop Gowda, a gun dealer, at Parappana Agrahara on December 12.
"When he was questioned he revealed that he had supplied a country made weapon and two live bullets to Mundewadi. Based on his statement, Mundewadi was arrested on Thursday night around 11.15 pm. When he was questioned, he confessed that Belagere had given him 'supari' to kill Heggaravalli."
"On August 28, Mundewadi along with his associate Viju Badiger had gone to Belagere's office in Kadirenahalli. The same day, Belagere allegedly gave a revolver, four bullets and a knife to him, and told him to kill Heggaravalli, with whom he had personal enmity. Belagere allegedly offered him limitless money and gave an advance of Rs. 15,000. A person working at his office accompanied Mundewadi and Viju Badiger to show Heggaravalli's house in Uttarahalli. The duo was waiting near Heggaravalli's house to gun him down. Once Heggaravalli came out of the house, Mundewadi targeted him and was about to shoot.
Fortunately for Heggaravalli, he went inside and the assailants could not carry out the attack," Mr. Kumar said.
Later, the duo reportedly went back to Belagere's office and returned the weapon and bullets, saying that they will come back after a month and finish the job. Based on this information, an FIR was lodged at Subramanyapura police station and the CCB police obtained a search warrant from the court.
"More than 20 policemen headed by ACP Subramani raided Belagere's office-cum-house at 1.30 pm on Friday and searched the premises. When the team reached there, Belagere was sleeping as he had returned from Dandeli in the morning. He was woken up and told about the case against him and questioned for more than four hours. He maintained that he had no idea about the case. The searches resulted in seizure of a revolver, 53 live rounds, a used bullet, a double barrel gun, its 41 live rounds, a deer skin and a tortoise shell," the police said.
"The revolver was locked in a safe and has no license. And why does any one need 53 bullets? We are questioning him on this," the police added.
Belagere was brought out of this house around 6 pm and was directly taken to the CCB office. After a round of questioning, he was taken to Victoria Hospital for medical tests. Later, he was produced before 1st ACMM Court Magistrate Jagadish's residence in Koramangala. He was remanded in police custody for four days.
