‘Killers hired to murder Krishnappa’

In a joint operation with CCB sleuths, the Nelamangala police arrested 12 associates of gangster Betthanagere Seena for their alleged involvement in the murder of Binnamangala Krishnappa.

The accused have been identified as Ravikumar alias Ravi, 23, of Doddabelavangala, Muniraju alias Macchu Muniya, 29, Vijaykumar alias Viji, 20, Shivakumar alias Shiva, 25, Ananda, 24, Ravikumar alias Ravi, 22, all from Handarahalli of Peenya 2nd Stage, Ravikumar alias Vandal Ravi, 30, of Nelamangala, Umesh, 24, of Solur, Abhishek, 19, of

Nelamangala Town, Govindaraju alias H Govinda, 27, of Sunkadakatte, Shivakumar alias Shiva alias Jonty, 23, of Hombalammapet and Praveen, 20, of Ramanagaram.

Addressing a press conference on Monday, Superintendent of Police (SP) of Bangalore Rural Dr Prakash said the arrested rowdies were hired by Seena for Rs 50,000 each.

“Seena had also assured the accused of helping their family members if they were caught. He had promised to pay some money to their family members every month,” the SP said.

He revealed that Seena had called 30-40 accused for a meeting to discuss the murder plot.

“The meeting was held at a resort in Nelamangala one day before Krishnappa was murdered on July 26. According to the plan, 30-40 people had chased Krishnappa’s vehicles in a Tempo Traveller, a Tata 407 vehicle, a canter and other vehicles and had killed Krishnappa using guns and other lethal weapons,” Prakash added.

He said one of the assailants Lakshminarayana alias Lakshamana alias Devva was shot dead by Krishnappa’s gunman.The police are still on the lookout for the kingpin of the case, Betthanagere Seena, Bande Manja, Harsha and others.