Sullia, Apr 25: Advocate and notary, B V Keshava Bhat Bheemaguli, who is based in Panja in the taluk, and who had gone missing after having been accused of causing losses to the exchequer by printing fake stamp paper and fabricating records to the detriment of some people, was arrested by the police on Thursday April 24.  

Bhat, who had gone underground after his alleged misdeeds came into the open, was coming to surrender before the court, when he was taken into custody. 

Bhat, whose bail applications had been rejected by both the state high court and the Supreme Court in the past, was left with no option but to surrender. It may be recalled that in view of the failure of the police to arrest Bhat in spite of repeated issuance of summons, the Dakshina Kannada district superintendent of police was compelled to appear in the high court on Wednesday and give an undertaking to arrest Bhat within two weeks. It is said that Keshava Bhat was proceeding towards the office of an advocate in Puttur, when he was nabbed by the police. 

A person named Manjulagiri Timmappaiah from Kutkunja village had bought a Maruti Ritz car from Mahesh Kumar from Karikkala in 2011. As there was outstanding bank loan against this car, Timmappaiah had contacted Keshava Bhat for preparing sale agreement and general power of attorney. Keshava Bhat collected Rs 1,500 from the concerned, and promised to procure two stamp papers with face value of Rs 200 each from the office of the sub-registrar in Sullia for the purpose. On the next day, the documents were provided. When Timmappaiah presented these papers to the bank, the bank manager rejected the documents, noticing that they were executed on fake stamp papers. Feeling aggrieved, Timmappaiah got the papers verified at the sub-registrar’s office, and found that they had not been distributed by that office. Timmappaiah then met Sullia police cirle inspector and Subrahmanya police station to register criminal case against Keshava Bhat on June 16, 2011. 

The then Sullia police circle inspector, Sunil Kumar, had arrested Bhat the same day, but released him the same night on bail. In the later investigations, Sullia circle inspector, K Taranath and other policemen had recovered fake notary seals, diary, fake rubber stamp of Panja Syndicate Bank, fake seal of Panja temple managing trustee, fake seal of Panja gram panchayat, and 33 fake documents prepared in the names of various clients that were provided to Syndicate Bank and South Canara District Central Cooperative Bank. Keshava Bhat thereafter, submitted anticipatory bail application, and upon its rejection, filed revision petition. The high court had then held that there is no case for anticipatory bail, as Bhat had been released on police bail. Timmappaiah then approached the high court seeking cancellation of this order, and got a revised order from the high court, which allowed the policemen to arrest Bhat. The high court also cancelled the earlier bail, as sought by Timmappaiah. Keshava Bhat, who had gone into hiding by now, did not respond to police notices, and applied for bail through Supreme Court. But his application was rejected there.

A team led by Sullia circle inspector, Satish, arrested Keshava Bhat. On being produced in the presence of the judge here, the circle inspector, who also happens to be the investigating officer, sought his police custody. The judge however, remanded Bhat to a day’s judicial custody, seeking him to be produced in the court on Friday.

After the above case surfaced, some more such fraudulent transactions came to light. Recently, the high court instructed for the suspension of Sunil Kumar, the then Sullia sub-inspector, who presently works in Byndoor station. Bhat’s office assistant, Tara Rai, and her brother, Deviprasad Rai, were also arrested for providing a place of hiding to Bhat. Bhat’s brother, Subrahmanya, also is in judicial custody now.