GADAG: Police arrested eight people, including local BJP leader Prakash Bakale’s elder son Vinayak Bakale, on Monday in connection with the murder of four members of the Bakale family in Gadag on Friday night.
According to police sources, Vinayak gave Rs 65-lakh “supari” to seven people to kill his father and other members of the family. The “supari” killers have been identified as Fairoz Qazi, 29, Zeeshan Qazi, 24, Sahil Qazi, 19, Sohail Qazi, 19, Sultan Sheikh, 23, Mahesh Solanke, 21, and Wahid Bepari, 21, from Miraj in Maharashtra.
Row over property led to murders
Vinayak gave Rs 2 lakh as “advance” to Fairoz and Zeeshan last week. The plan was to kill Prakash and his wife Sunanda Bakale, who is the vice-president of Gadag Betageri Town Municipal Council (TMC), and their son Karthik. Sunanda is the second wife of Prakash and Vinayak is his first wife’s son.
Vinayak used to frequently quarrel with Prakash over issues related to their real estate business and family property. As per the plan, the “supari” killers entered the house of Prakash through an AC vent on Friday night and killed four people who were sleeping on the first floor. They could not kill Prakash and Sunanda as they were sleeping in another room which was locked from inside. When Prakash heard some noise, he called the police. The “supari” killers, who heard Prakash calling the police, escaped.
Belagavi North Range IGP Vikash Kumar Vikash said DG and IGP Alok Mohan has announced a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh to the team which cracked the case within 72 hours.