New Delhi, May 21 (IANS): Two months after arresting six accused in the murder of a senior BJP member from Karnataka's Dharwad, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday filed chargesheet against eight people accused in the case.

A CBI official here said that the agency has filed chargesheet against Santosh Savadatti, Dinesh M, Sunil K.S, Harshith, Aswath S, Nazeer Ahamad, Shanawaz and Nutan K.S. before the JMFC Court in Dharwad.

According to CBI, Yogish Gowda, a member of the Dharwad Zilla Panchayath in Karnataka was murdered on June 15, 2016 in front of a gym in Sapthapura area.

Gowda ran a gym at Sapthapura in Dharwad and was a friend of Basavaraj Shivappa Muttagi, the prime accused, for the last 10 years with different political inclinations. Gowda came to know about a land purchase deal by Muttagi. Gowda had threatened Muttagi that he should not purchase the land as it was under the former's custody and if he still proceeded, he would kill him.

The agency had taken over the probe on September 24, 2019 based on the notifications of the Karnataka government and central government.

The case was earlier registered by local police at Sub-Urban Police Station in Dharwad. The police filed the final report on September 9, 2016 before jurisdictional court, chargesheeting six accused persons, all residents of Dharwad.

The agency official said that after taking over the probe, CBI had arrested eight accused. Seven of these accused are presently in judicial custody and one accused is on bail. He said during the investigation it was revealed that the accused allegedly came to Dharwad on two occasions in June 2016 and with the support of other accused allegedly planned the murder of Gowda.

"These accused fled after the murder of Gowda," he said.

The official said that further investigation into the role of the other accused and larger conspiracy in this case is continuing on a day-to-day basis.