Mangaluru, Jul 1: The III Judicial Magistrate First Class Court here has extended for two days the police custody of Naresh Shenoy aka NaMo Naresh, the prime accused in the murder of RTI activist Vinayak Panduranga Baliga.
Naresh, who had been absconding since the March 21 murder, was formally arrested by the police on June 26. He was initially produced before the court on July 27. The court had then allowed his police custody up to June 30 for questioning about various aspects of the case.
K Tilakchandra, assistant commissioner of police, Mangaluru central sub-division, investigating officer in the case produced Naresh before the court and sought his custody for five more days. He informed the court that police had seized the car which Naresh had used to flee the city after the March 21 incident and go to Goa. The car belonged to Giridhar Shetty, which he left in Goa and is said to have taken a flight from there to Delhi. This is being verified, he said.
Police also have also seized the scooter reportedly used by three assailants, who are among the six other accused people arrested in the case. Police have also visited places where Naresh reportedly met the other accused and hatched the plan to murder Vinayak Baliga.
Tilakchandra in seeking additional days of police custody said police needed to visit the hideouts where Naresh stayed following the murder and seize mobile phones and sim cards that he is believed to have discarded.
He also informed the court that they needed to question the accused regarding the whereabouts of Vignesh Nayak, owner of a multi-utility vehicle that Naresh is said to have used for commission of murder. They also need to visit few more places with Naresh and seize documents related to the murder.
Magistrate Manjunath who permitted his custody till July 2, allowed his lawyers to file objections to police request to subject him to polygraph, brain mapping and narco tests.
The city-based RTI activist Baliga was murdered by hired killers on March 21 last near his residence at Kodialbail here. The case had generated public interest as the investigation was personally led by Police Commissioner M Chandra Sekhar.
Naresh is a popular Hindutva leader and founder of Namo Brigade which had orchestrated Prime Minister Narendra Modi's election campaign in 2014. The Namo Brigade, which was his outfit's original name, was later renamed as Yuva Brigade.
Besides Naresh, the other arrested are Shailesh (40), Shivaprasad (28), Vineet Poojary (26) and Nishit Devadiga (23). Naresh's close associate, photographer K Manjunath Shenoy (39), was also arrested for helping the accused abscond. He was later granted bail, police said.
The suspected motive for the murder relates to financial irregularities in a temple in the city. The temple is a cash- rich religious institution belonging to Goud Saraswat Brahmin (GSB) community. Police sources said that NaMo was angered when Baliga, a fellow community member, tried to expose the dealings of the accused in the temple.
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