Bengaluru, Jul 17: The investigation into the case of attempt to kidnap Vinay, the personal assistant of the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council K S Eshwarappa, took a curious turn with the police visiting BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa’s house in the city on Saturday night to look for one of the suspects.
A police team led by Assistant Commissioner of Police (Malleswaram sub-division) A R Badiger visited the former chief minister’s house at Dollar’s Colony in search of his personal assistant and relative N R Santosh for his suspected involvement in the kidnap attempt. The Mahalakshimi Layout police are investigating the case related to the attempt to kidnap Vinay from their jurisdiction in May this year.
After the police visited his house, Yeddyurappa on Sunday urged Bengaluru Police Commissioner Praveen Sood to conduct a fair and truthful investigation into the case.
In a two-page letter to the commissioner, Yeddyurappa charged the police with misconduct during investigation. A team led by ACP Badiger entered his house through cellar on July 15 midnight in search of Santosh. They later left the place after finding that he was not in the house, the senior BJP leader mentioned in the letter. He said there was no need for the police to visit his house at midnight. According to Yeddyurappa, the police forced Rajendra Urs, one of the accused in the case, to mention that Santosh is also involved in the case.
“It appears that the police officers concerned are determined to fix Santosh as an accused in the case in which, to the best of my knowledge, he is not involved,” Yeddyurappa said. Rajendra Urs is said to be a BJP Yuva Morcha office-bearer and a close follower of Yeddyurappa. He said he has no intention of interfering in the probe and urged the police commissioner to ensure that the investigation is not done with an intention to damage the reputation of ‘political rivals’ and harassing the innocent. He said that Santosh is also his relative.
Meanwhile, the police denied certain charges levelled by Yeddyurappa. “We went to Yeddyurappa’s Dollar’s Colony residence based on an information that Santosh, who is wanted in an attempt to kidnap case, was there,” Badiger told DH.
The police claimed that they did not enter Yeddyurappa’s residence and, that he was sleeping when the police went there.
The charge that the police entered his residence through cellar and conducted searches are false. The police didn’t enter the residence as they didn’t have a warrant, the ACP said.
Badiger said he spoke to constables deployed at Yeddyurappa’s residence to know if Santosh was hiding there and then came back. The police claimed that they know that Yeddyurappa is a former chief minister and did their job within legal framework without crossing their limits.
When DH contacted Sood, he declined to comment.
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