Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (DV)

Mangaluru, Aug 18: Prof Narendra Nayak, president of Federation of Indian Rationalists' Associations on Thursday August 18 lamented that the investigation into the murder of RTI actvist Vinayak Baliga, that had shook the coastal region, had come to a standstill since the arrest of prime accused Naresh Shenoy, and demanded that the mastermind behind the gruesome murder and others involved be arrested by forming a special task force for the purpose.

Vinayak Baliga was hacked to death near his house in Kodialbail on March 21 this year. The prime accused Naresh Shenoy, who went absconding soon after the murder, was arrested three months later.

Addressing a press meet here on behalf of the Baliga family and Deshapremi Sanghatanegala Okkuta, Prof Nayak said, "Though two months have passed since the arrest and judicial custody of the prime accused, there has been no progress reported in the investigations. While it is clear that it was not one but several masterminds behind the crime, a few others have been let off the hook. While the accused in judicial custody had tried several means to get out on bail, including getting hospitalized under the pretext of chronic renal failure, nothing seems to have worked so far and his application for bail was rejected on August 9.

"The investigations seem to have come to a standstill. One of the methods to go further into the murky depths of this crime was to subject the accused number 1 (Naresh Shenoy) to narco analysis and that has been opposed by him. It is a question as to why who claims innocent has to refuse that. One can see that he is keen to protect the others behind this crime and so far he seems to have succeeded," he said.

Calling for the re-opening of another murder case in connection to Naresh Shenoy that occured in 2012, he said, "On October 2, 2012, one Nandakumar Prabhu had allegedly murdered one Mahesh Prabhu with a knife and an FIR was registered at Bunder police station. The case came up in the sessions court where more than a dozen witnesses turned hostile. In fact, there was no single prosecution witness. Two of the accused in the Baliga murder case, Naresh Shenoy and Manju, had played very important roles in scuttling this case. When the accused was acquitted, it was Naresh Shenoy who stood surety for him and later on he is said to have employed the accused. The one who could get away with murder seems to have emboldened this gang to go ahead with another one."

Drawing attention to the issue of re-audit of the accounts of Shree Venkataramana Temple, he said, "An exposure of the irregularities therein would have caused problems for the previous auditor who had signed the balance sheet. Baliga had asked for it and one person had agreed to do the re-audit. But after Baliga's brutal murder, he developed cold feet and the task has not been taken up so far. We would like this task to be transferred to a government department so that the check will happen. The brutal execution of Baliga has scared many others too. We do hope that the court will order the police to give protection to the staff of the auditor so that they can carry on their task fearlessly.

"Some of the letters that Baliga wrote have disappeared without a trace. He had been meticulous in filing a number of copies of his correspondence and some of them are missing. The onus seems to lie on the police official who had confiscated them from his house and it looks as if a systematic effort has been made to destroy incriminating evidence. Some of these strong letters have disappeared without a trace. There is a video of a talk of Baliga to the group of supporters of Sri Raghavendra Theertha, the deposed shishya of Sri Sudhindra Theertha. In that he had mentioned some technical points about why the incumbent Sri Samyameendra was not the one for the post of the head of the Kashi Math but it was Raghavendra because he had the Saligrama in his possession. This could have been one of the reasons why Baliga was eliminated. All these threads seem to have remained unexplored so far," he opined.

Demanding arrest of those who helped Naresh Shenoy stay underground for three months, he said, "Again, when Naresh Shenoy was on the run for three months, where was he hiding? The whole thing seems to be a mystery because the only one who has been accused of supporting him and abetting his escape is Manju. It is very clear that he was not the only one. There seem to have been at least half a dozen people who have abetted his escape and supported him on the run. Why are they being shielded? There seems to be a lot of political pressure as some of them are highly placed in those circles. Naresh Shenoy could not have survived for three months without substantial financial and personal support. The question is who did that and why? Again the whole process of trying for anticipatory bail is a very expensive one and it would have cost millions. Who provided him that much financial support?"

Contending that bail should not be granted to the accused, Prof Nayak said, "Coming to the question of bail for the accused the Baliga family are living in dread because they know that while some of them are ruthless hired killers, the others are highly influential people. Once they are out on bail the family fears, that they too will come to harm. While some of the crucial evidence seems to have been destroyed, the witnesses too could be intimidated. The very sight of them going around freely would strike terror into them to go back on their testimonies. This being a brutal, well-planned murder, the accused should not be out on bail for the duration of the trial but it looks like one of them (Manju) has already managed to get it due to reasons best known to the prosecution. We urge them to go on appeal to get the same cancelled as there is grave danger to the lives of the surviving members of Vinayak Baliga’s family.

"We urge the government of Karnataka to constitute a special task force to go into further investigations of the Baliga murder. While we applaud the excellent work done by the police commissioner Chandra Sekar, we also understand his problems and responsibilities would not permit him to take the investigations into his own hands. The investigations have come this far only due to his commitment in the case and the diligence with which he had pursued it without succumbing to any pressure," he said.