BELAGAVI: Despite attempts by Belagavi Police to arrest Belagavi Tahsildar Basavaraj Nagaral; Somu, PA of Women and Child Development Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar, and first division assistant Ashok Kabbaligar, who are accused in the case of suicide of Rudreshwar Yadavannavar, a second division assistant in the Tahsildar’s office, the three suspects applied for an anticipatory bail on Friday.
For the past few days, the Belagavi Police have been unable to arrest the three, even as the BJP leaders have been mounting pressure to nab them for allegedly harassing Yadavannavar, who hanged himself in the official chamber of Nagaral in Belagavi on Monday night.
Sources said the police are under pressure to not arrest the three, even after an FIR has been filed against them. Nagaral is said to have attended office on the day Yadavannavar hanged himself. Police sources said the investigation into the suicide case was under way and all those who were in touch with Yadavannavar on WhatsApp a day before he took his life, have been issued notices to cooperate with the investigation.
A few days before the suicide, Yadavannavar had through his last WhatsApp message, named all the three accused as responsible for his death. It has come to light that he was under intense pressure from the three to allegedly cooperate in carrying out illegal transfer of ownership of several lands in the Belagavi region.
Yadavannavar had allegedly confided in some of his friends that he was being mentally harassed and forced to carry out illegal work in the office. Even after accepting a bribe of Rs 2.5 lakh from him, the Tahsildar had not assigned him a different job in the same office.
The police have been looking at CCTV footage inside and outside the Tahsildar’s office and in the nearby areas to examine the movements of people around the place of the crime on the day Yadavannavar committed suicide. Meanwhile, the BJP leaders in Belagavi alleged that the police department changed the investigating officer abruptly, bowing to political pressure. In place of the CPI, the department named ACP Shekharappa as the investigating officer in the case.