Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Nov 9: In the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe, it has come to light that in order to save actual murderers, slain Yogesh Gowda's blood was smeared to lethal weapons connected with some other incident, before sending the same to the forensic science laboratory by the police.

The case pertains to the murder of Yogesh Gowda, BJP zilla panchayat murder, in which former Congress MLA and powerful Lingayat leader Vinay Kulkarni's hand is suspected.

Yogesh Gowda (left) and Vinay Kulkarni

The then Dharwad satellite town police inspector, Channakeshava Tingrikar, has filed a petition seeking bail in the special court for CBI cases at Dharwad. When considering the application, tie CBI officers gave this information to the court, based on which the court dismissed the bail petition.

The CBI officials also said that when filing charge sheet in the case, names of the persons who actually murdered Yogesh Gowda were left out. They said that main accused, Basavaraj Muttagi, had got some assailants to assist him from Bengaluru and other places. But the police, instead of arresting them, arrested five local people and named them in the charge sheet. They pointed out that the identity parade of the accused was not held and even in later days, effort was not made to find out the actual murderers. "The police arrested five persons. Instead of taking into possession the lethal weapons found at the spot of murder, five were arrested and weapons collected from a single place were included in the case. For these weapons which were created by the police to assist the murderers, blood from the spot where post-mortem was conducted was brought and smeared to the weapons before sending to the forensic laboratory for testing. Channakeshava Tingrikar misused his power in the case," the investigating officers said.

They also said that the police inspector, who conducted investigation of a decisive part of Yogesh Gowda murder case had not followed law, misused power and has committed offences punishable under section 201 of Indian Penal Code. He concealed many things and created evidences to help those who planned this murder, the CBI officers said.