A 24-year-old BJP leader and businessman committed suicide in Bhalki on Saturday.
Siddu Rachappa Patil used a revolver to shoot himself in the head at his house in Bhalki town, the police said.
Family members who heard the gunshot rushed to his room only to see him struggling. They took Patil to the district government hospital in Bidar where the doctors declared him brought dead.
Doctors said the gun was held at an angle to his head. “An X-ray showed the bullet travelled downwards and was lodged behind the left ear. There was no exit wound,” a doctor said. The bullet was recovered during post-mortem.
Patil was the former president of the Morambi Gram Panchayat in Bhalki taluk. He was the grandson of Basavaraj Patil Humnabad, BJP MLC, and was also related to Gurupadappa Nagamarapalli, MLA, and the former MLA Prakash Khandre.
His father, Rachappa Patil, owns Pooja Travels, a private bus transport company.
Additional Superintendent of Police G. Sangeeta, who visited the hospital, told presspersons there was no clear information about the gun used. Sources in the police said they were yet to recover the gun. “The Patil family does not have a licensed weapon. Sources in the family have told the police they have no idea how he got the gun. We suspect he stole it from a friend or a relative,” a police officer said.
The Bhalki Town police have registered a case of unnatural death.
