A day after Ajit Nayak, 57, a noted criminal lawyer and a Congress leader from Dandeli in Karnataka’s Uttara Kannada district was murdered, a senior police official said on Sunday that they had got some leads and were hopeful of cracking the case soon.
The advocate, who was active in Kali Bachao Andolan (Movement to Save the Kali river), was fatally hacked by an unknown masked person between 9.10 p.m. and 9.15 p.m. in Dandeli on Friday.
After completing work at his office on J.N. Road in Dandeli, he was going to his car along with two other people, when a person suddenly attacked him with a sword. A profusely bleeding Nayak was rushed to a nearby hospital where the doctors declared him ‘brought dead’.
He is survived by his wife and two sons.
Mr. Nayak was a former chief of the Dandeli Block Congress and a former president of the Dandeli City Muncipal Council. He also headed the Dandeli Bar Association and led a movement demanding that Dandeli be made a separate taluk by carving it out of Joida taluk.
Additional Superintendent of Police, Uttara Kannada, K.G. Devaraju, told The Hindu on Sunday: “We are on track. We are hopeful of cracking the case in two days.” Sources said the police had got information on the lawyer’s property disputes and the cases he was arguing in court.
Silent marches held
Dandeli observed a bandh on Saturday in protest against the murder. Condemning the crime, all lawyers boycotted court proceedings and took out silent marches in Dandeli and other taluk headquarters in Uttara Kannada. They also submitted memoranda to the Deputy Commissioner in Karwar and tahsildars in other taluks of the district seeking strict action.
