BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court has directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe allegations that the son of former MP DK Audikeshavulu and others murdered businessman K Raghunath over a property dispute in 2019, without being influenced by the ‘B’ report filed by the Special Investigation Team (SIT).
Quashing the orders passed by a magistrate that further investigation be conducted by the HAL police while rejecting the ‘B’ report submitted by the SIT, Justice M Nagaprasanna directed the CBI to complete investigation in six months and submit a report before the jurisdictional court.
The court passed the order while partly allowing the petition filed by Raghunath’s wife M Manjula and son Rohith challenging the orders passed by the magistrate on February 21 and March 10, 2022. They also sought directions to handover the entire matter to the CBI for reinvestigation.
According to the petition, Raghunath, a close associate of Adikeshavulu, owned many immovable properties in different parts of Bengaluru district. After Audikeshavulu death in 2013, Raghunath began scouting the former MP’s properties.
D A Srinivas, son of Audikeshavulu, and other associates started pressurising Raghunath to transfer a few of the immovable properties owned by him, claiming that the source of income of the properties in his (Raghunath’s) name is of Srinivas’ father, the petition said.
Private complaint
The petition also said that Raghunath called his wife over phone and told her his life was not safe. On May 4, 2019, he was found hanging from the ceiling fan of his residence. Without suspecting anyone, his son gave a statement and accordingly the police registered an unnatural death report. In February 2020, Raghunath’s wife registers a complaint alleging that her husband was murdered by Srinivas, Damodar, Ramachandraiah and others.
The police refused to register the complaint and it was forwarded to the police commissioner, but no crime was registered. Following directions from the magistrate, a private complaint was registered against the accused. As investigation was not completed, Manjula approached the High Court which directed constituting SIT to the probe the case.
The SIT filed a ‘B’ report before the magistrate, who rejected it and directed the HAL police to conduct further investigation and submit a report on or before April 22, 2022.