BENGALURU: Noted legal scholar and advocate Shamnad Basheer was found dead in his car in an isolated place near Bababudangiri shrine in Chikkamagaluru district on Thursday.
Basheer, 43, was not reachable to his family members since August 3. A complaint in this regard was registered on Thursday by his brother. His car was locked from inside and the body was found on the driver’s seat, said Chikkamagaluru District Superintendent of Police Harish Pandey.
According to his family members, Basheer had gone to Datta Peetha on August 3 morning with a driver. Later, the deceased had sent back the driver to Chikkamagaluru town telling him that he would return on his own in his car. After this, he was incommunicable for about five days.
A search operation was held on Thursday leading to the discovery of the car and Basheer's body. Cause of his death is uncertain and an inquiry into the death as well as post-mortem would be held on Friday morning, Pandey said.
However, suspicions are abound about the manner in which Shamnad Basheer died. According to a theory, he might have slept off in his car with the heater on and might have died of asphyxiation.
Shamnad Basheer, a pioneer in Intellectual Property Rights, had founded an organisation called the Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access to Legal Education (IDIA) for the welfare of students from a poor socio-economic background. Few of his noteworthy fights include arguing against Swiss pharma giant Novartis seeking a patent for cancer drug Glivec and filing a PIL in the Supreme Court throwing light on the issues in the Common Law Admission Test for National Law Schools.
