The Bangalore City Police announced on Thursday that it had cracked the murder of Deputy Director of Cooperative Audit S.P. Mahantesh on May 15. The attack was ordered by a 23-year-old accountant employed with the Sahakarnagar Credit Cooperative Society, Commissioner of Police B.G. Jyothi Prakash Mirji told a press conference here.
He said Kiran Kumar had siphoned off “huge sums of money” from the cooperative society and was afraid of being exposed in the audit. He enlisted his friends to attack Mahantesh who had issued notice to the Sahakarnagar society asking its office-bearers to disclose their transactions for statutory audit.
Following up on the notice, Mahantesh visited the society's office, which is on the way to the Bengaluru International Airport, on the evening of May 15. Kiran Kumar gave his friends Aiyappa (24), Murali (29) and Shivakumar (28) the number of Mahantesh's car and tipped them off when the official left the society's office that evening. The four have been arrested.
The three suspects followed Mahantesh's car and tried to ambush him near the Mehkri Circle, but aborted the attempt as there were many people on the road. Their opportunity came when the official drove past Hotel Atria, opposite the official residence of the Karnataka Chief Justice.
The killers allegedly rear-ended Mahantesh's car to make him stop, and attacked him the moment he stepped out to inspect the damage. While two of them rained blows on him with their fists, the third allegedly brought a cricket stump down on his head. Mr. Mirji said the police were looking for a fifth person who is absconding.
According to Mr. Mirji, Kiran used to spend money liberally on his friends. “He and his group of friends were into several bad habits such as drinking, gambling and soliciting prostitutes,” Mr. Mirji said.
Kiran was given the job in the Sahakarnagar society after his father, who was employed there, died four years ago. However, Mr. Mirji failed to explain how somebody so young (he was 19 when he was hired) could have been the architect of such massive misappropriation. The Police Commissioner refused to comment when asked if Kiran was acting on the instructions of some of his seniors.
The theory proposed by the police, however, matches the suspicions expressed by Mahantesh's family. Sections of the media too pointed to the large-scale irregularities in the city's cooperative societies, some even suggesting that the official was killed because of his no-nonsense approach to work.
