Two days after a realtor was hacked to death in Bengaluru, five people surrendered before the Bharati Nagar police on Thursday in connection with the murder case, in which former minister and BJP MLA Byrathi Basavaraj is also an accused.
A court sent the people who surrendered–Kiran, Pradeep, Vimal, Madan, and Samuel–to 10 days’ police custody, an officer said.
On Tuesday, more than eight people allegedly killed Shiva Kumar alias Bikla Shivu, a resident of Halasuru, when he was standing outside his home in Halasuru with his driver, Imran, and friend Lokesh.
The murder allegedly took place over a property dispute, but the surrendered men claimed that they had killed Shiva Kumar over a personal dispute, according to the police.
Shiva Kumar’s mother Vijayalakshmi said that she witnessed the murder from her balcony. In her complaint, she named Puram BJP MLA Byrathi Basavaraj.
According to Vijayalakshmi’s police complaint, Shiva Kumar was into the real estate business and he had received death threats to give up a property for which a general power of attorney had been registered in his name in 2023. On February 11, a few men allegedly barged into the property and chased some workers who had been staying in a shed that Shiva Kumar had built on it.
They allegedly threatened to kill Shiva Kumar if he did not give up the property, Vijayalakshmi said, adding that he had filed a police complaint stating that it was at Byrathi Basavaraj’s behest that the men were issuing death threats.
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The police have issued a notice to Byrathi Basavaraj directing him to appear before the investigation team in the case, a police officer said.
The BJP MLA has rejected the allegations, stating that he does not even know who Shiva Kumar was.
Shiva Kumar was also a rowdy-sheeter with many cases registered against him, according to the police.