Senior journalist Ravi Belagere was arrested by the Central Crime Bureau police in Bengaluru on Friday for allegedly hiring contract killers to kill his colleague Sunil Heggaravalli, around three months back. However, the attack was cancelled last minute after the sharpshooter allegedly spotted a CCTV camera at the target's residence.
Representative image | Reuters
An FIR has been filed under IPC sections 307 and 120B (attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy) against Belagere, editor of "Hi Bangalore" tabloid, in the Subramanyapura police station. He was later produced before the First ACMM court and remanded to police custody for four days.
The special investigation team investigating the Gauri Lankesh murder case stumbled upon this case during an interrogation of sharp shooters in the state.
On December 3, the cops had arrested one Tahir Hussain alias Anoop Gowda for his alleged links with illegal arms racket. Tahir gave leads about other gunrunners including Shashidhar Mundewadi (38), a resident of Bijapur.
On December 7, 2017, the police arrested Shashidhar, who spilled the beans over Belagere's "supari" (contract to kill).
"The arrest of Tahir Hussian, an illegal arms dealer revealed that Shashidhar, a sharp shooter had purchased a revolver and two rounds from him. During interrogation, Shashidhar told us about Belagere giving him supari to kill Heggaravalli. The sharpshooter had closely watched Heggaravalli's movement and his house. But did not kill the target. Based on this information, we raided the home and office of Belagere. We have taken custody of Shashidhar till December 18," said Bengaluru commissioner of police Suneel Kumar.
Home Minister R. Ramalinga Reddy said no links have been found between Tahir and the Gauri Lankesh murder case.
A shocked Sunil Heggaravallihe told a television channel that he had quit the tabloid after some misunderstanding with Belagere. Recently, Belagere had asked him to come back to the tabloid.
"I was reluctant but then joined him. Today morning, when senior police officials told me about the Subaru, it occurred to me that his intention was to get me killed."
While the police maintain that the motive behind Belagere offering "supari" appears to be a "personal" one, rumours of an alleged affair between Heggaravalli and Belagere's second wife are making the rounds. Incidentally, Ravi Belagere has two wives Lalita and Yashomati (a colleague whom he married without divorcing his first wife). He has four children—two daughters and a son from his first marriage and a son from his second one.
Recently, Ravi Belagere was in the news after he, along with another tabloid editor were ordered to be arrested, by the Karnataka assembly speaker K. B. Koliwad over breach of privilege by writing derogatory articles against MLAs.
