Daijiworld Media Network - Dharwad (SP)

Dharwad, Mar 2: On Sunday, March 1, the officials of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested six persons relating to the murder of Dharwad zilla panchayat member Yogeesh Gowda, from the city. All of them are contract killers. They have been identified as Dinesh, Ashwath, Sunil K, Shah Nawaz, Nazir and Nutan.

A person identified as Basavaraj Muttagi was hired to kill Yogeesh Gowda. CBI has found that Muttagi got the murder plan executed through his associates.

Yogeesh was killed with sharp weapons on June 15, 2016 at a gym owned by him. Four persons who came by a car had attacked Gowda and butchered him with machetes. It was treated as a politically motivated murder.

Basavaraj Muttagi has reportedly confessed to the crime. However, after CBI began investigation, it came to light that Muttagi was contracted for Yogeesh's killing by someone else. Out of the six who were arrested, three are from Bengaluru and the others are from Tamil Nadu and some parts of Karnataka. The CBI is yet to find out the details of the persons who hired Muttagi to eliminate Yogeesh.

Yogeesh Gowda's brother, Gurunath Gowda, had approached high court in 2017 alleging political angle to the murer. The high court had quashed the petition in 2018. After the BJP government came to power, the case was entrusted to CBI. This decision was questioned in the high court by Muttagi and the high court vacated the restrictions.

There were allegations that former minister and Congress leader Vinay Kulkarni was behind Yogeesh Gowda's murder. Complaints had been filed about the alleged attempts by Vinay Kulkarni helped by two deputy superintendents of police having tried to destroy evidence. Kulkarni however stood firm in claiming that he had nothing to do with the murder. Later, Yogeesh's wife Mallamma, left the BJP and joined the Congress. She dismissed the notion that Kulkarni was behind the murder. But Yogeesh's family has been alleging that this was a politically inspired murder.