BENGALURU: Tuesday’s incident was the second political murder in the city in less than six months. Police suspect that a struggle for power may have been the motive behind the murder of BJP leader Kittaganahalli Srinivas.
The city and the state has witnessed political murders over the past few years. In the last incident, a 42-year-old BJP party worker was hacked to death on November 8, 2016. Chikkathimmegowda and his friend were returning home on a bike when Chikkathimmegowda was hacked to death. A week later, police arrested Govinde Gowda, a JD(S) worker and husband of former BBMP councillor Varamahalakshmi. The duo had agreed to pay Govinde Gowda `30 lakh supari to kill Chikkathimmegowda who was with JD(S) and then moved to BJP. Govinde Gowda first paid `5 lakh to the killers and then `10 lakh after Chikkathimmegowda was killed. The duo was yet to pay the remaining amount to the killers.
Police had said that Chikkathimmegowda had backed Varamahalakshmi when she successfully contested the 2010 BBMP elections. During the 2015 election, Chikkathimmegowda backed the BJP candidate, who went on to defeat Varamahalakshmi. He is also believed to have worked against the couple when they were cheated of over `1 crore by their adopted son.
In 2014, a BJP corporator’s husband was hacked to death by five unidentified men at a hair salon in K R Puram. Ciripura Srinivas (43) was the husband of Devasandra corporator Manjula Devi.
Police had said that the gang members were reportedly tailing him before they attacked him at the salon. The five were later arrested and police found that it was a contract killing over a political rivalry.