BENGALURU: Anger and frustration built up over losing tenders for supplying furniture to government offices, and the Lokayukta closing his petitions against those government departments which had denied him tenders without probing them, led Tejraj Sharma (33) to decide to kill Lokayukta Justice P Vishwanath Shetty on Wednesday afternoon. He chose Wednesday as he believed the day was good to wage a war against ‘adharma’ . This is what Tejraj stated to the police investigating the case. On Thursday, Tejraj was handed over to the Central Crime Branch (CCB) and will be in their custody for five days. Justice Shetty is recovering in Mallya Hospital with multiple stab wounds.
In 2009, Tejraj started his own business named ‘Ambe Krupa Marketing & Furniture’ in Tumakuru town. The business failed, and he started applying for tenders called by government offices to supply furniture. In 2014, he first applied to supply furniture to a government-run college in Tumakuru, but he was not awarded the tender. Later, he had applied for a tender at Women and Child Welfare Department. There, too, he did not get the tender. Early in 2017, he had applied for a tender in DDPI’s office, but got the tender only for `30,000.
“He was frustrated as nothing was working for him. He suspected there was corruption in the tender awarding process,” an official privy to Tejraj’s statement, said.“Thus, he filed petitions in those cases with the Lokayukta. But, even in the Lokayukta office, his petitions were closed. When even the Lokayukta did not take any action on his petitions, he was devastated, and decided to kill Justice Shetty,” the official said.