BENGALURU: A journalist, who was lodged at Parappana Agrahara Central Prison, allegedly committed suicide on Tuesday evening. However, his family members suspect foul play behind his death. The deceased is Anil Raj (55), a resident of Yelahanka. He was running the tabloid ‘Yelahanka Voice’ and was an undertrial prisoner in a rape case. Police said he was found hanging from the window grills of a temple located inside the jail premises. The prison staff rushed him to a jail hospital, where he was declared brought dead.
“He was arrested by the Yelahanka police in August in connection with a rape case filed by a woman working in his office. We have registered a case and are investigating,” a Parappana Agrahara police official said.
However, Raj’s family members have alleged foul play. “We met him on Tuesday afternoon. There were injury marks on his forehead and other parts of his body. We will decide the next course of action once we get access to the postmortem report,” a family member said.
In 2017, the state Assembly had directed the arrest of Raj in a breach of privilege case after he published articles against then-Speaker KB Koliwad. The Karnataka assembly had moved a resolution imposing a one-year prison sentence and Rs 10,000 fine on Raj. Raj moved the High Court and got a stay on the order. Before that, an MLA filed a defamation suite against him for publishing articles against him. He approached court and got the order revoked.