Mangaluru, Aug 18: The family members of RTI activist Vinayak Panduranga Baliga, who was murdered earlier this year after he exposed alleged misappropriations in a temple, have urged city police to reinvestigate the murder of Mahesh Prabhu, who was killed inside a mutt in the city nearly four years ago.
Baliga's sister Harsha Baliga, father Ramachandra Baliga and members of Deshapremi Sanghatanegala Okkuta alleged that the two accused - Naresh Shenoy alias NaMo Naresh and Manjunath Shenoy had played very important roles in scuttling the probe in four year old murder case.
Okkuta president Narendra Nayak, also president of the Federation of Rationalist Associations of India (FIRA), told reporters that Naresh Shenoy, main accused in the Baliga murder case, had stood surety for the accused in the Mahesh Prabhu murder case when they were acquitted. Nayak also urged city police to form a special investigation team to unearth more details about the Baliga murder.
"Though two months have passed since the arrest and judicial custody of the prime accused, there has been no progress in the investigation into the Baliga murder. While it's clear that it was not one but several masterminds behind the crime, a few others have been let off the hook. One of the methods to go into the murky depths of this crime is to subject the accused number one (Naresh Shenoy) to a narcoanalysis test. One can see he is keen to protect others behind this crime and so far he seems to have succeeded. In 2012, Nandakumar Prabhu had allegedly murdered Mahesh Prabhu with a knife and an FIR was registered by Mangaluru North police on October 2. The case came up in the sessions court where more than a dozen witnesses turned hostile. Two accused in the Baliga murder case, Naresh Shenoy and Manjunath, had played major roles in scuttling the case," Nayak said.
He said, "Some of the letters that Baliga wrote have disappeared without a trace. The onus seems to lie on the police official who confiscated them from his house and it looks there's a systematic effort to destroy incriminating evidence."
Citing a possible threat to the Baliga family, Nayak said the accused in case should not be granted bail. "Once they're out on bail, the family fears they too will come to harm. While some crucial evidence seems to have been destroyed, the witnesses too could be intimidated. Baliga's father has already objected to the bail application," he said. Lauding the efforts of city police commissioner M Chandra Sekhar in the investigation, Nayak urged for a special team to be constituted.
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