BENGALURU: Four days after 21-year-old Basheer died after being stripped, beaten and given electric shock, police are yet to arrest the other accused in the case. While the prime accused Vasudev Reddy, a businessman who runs water supply unit, has already been arrested, police said they are making efforts to nab the other accused.
Most of them who followed instructions of Vasudev Reddy lived in the huts close to Basheer’s place. Police said Vasudev Reddy had asked his people to beat ragpicker Basheer and his friends to teach them a lesson.
It is suspected that Reddy and his associates, in the past, used to threaten and assault the employees who did not work as per their directions. “They always kept the staff under fear. This time also, the accused thought they would get away easily with the businessman’s influence. But after the news started doing the rounds in media, they fled their homes,” a police source said.
DCP (Whitefield) Abdul Ahad said teams were formed to nab the other accused. On Monday, Basheer and two of his friends Ajmal and Hafizul were abducted by a gang, suspecting that they had stolen electric wires from a water pumping unit. They were allegedly tortured for at least 10 hours.
They were stripped off their clothes and thrashed by electric cables and plastic pipes. They were also given electric shock. Basheer died on the spot after he was administered electric shock while two others sustained grievous injuries. A day later, the case was registered under IPC sections 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt to murder).