Karnataka cop accused of being accomplice in BJP worker’s murder on the run

Belagavi

A police inspector, accused of being an accomplice in the 2016 murder of Dharwad Zilla Panchayat BJP member Yogeshgouda, is absconding, people aware of the matter said on Sunday.

The accused police inspector, Chennakeshav Tingarkar, who works under the Belagavi Police Commissionerate made the run minutes before CBI reached his house in Dharwad town, officials said.

Inspector Tingarkar, the then in-charge of Dharwad sub-division police station was the investigation officer of the murder case of Yogeshgouda, who was hacked to death in a gymnasium belonging to legislator Kulkarni in Dharwad town on the morning of June 15, 2016.

Inspector Tingarkar, allegedly favoured the prime accused in the case, Congress MLA Vinay Kulkarni, by destroying the material evidences and threatening the eyewitnesses of the case.

The deceased Yogeshgouda’s family filed a case against Inspector Tingarkar with the Elected Representatives’ Court in Bengaluru in 2017 regarding the destruction of the material evidences, threatening eye witnesses and they also alleged that he collected a huge sum of amount from prime accused Kulkarni to help him in the case.

After a suit was filed against him with the Elected Representatives’ Court, Inspector Tingarkar, to avoid his arrest, got an anticipatory bail from the Karnataka high court’ Bench in Dharwad in 2017.

Since the central agency is investigating the case, both Hubballi-Renuka Police commissioners Sukumar and Siddarmappa denied to react, however, added that they would assist in the investigation.

Inspector Tingarkar failed to attend the hearings after which the Elected Representatives’ Court did not extend his interim bail application term and served a non- bailable arrest warrant against him.

Inspector Tingarkar after his interim bail term ended last week, moved the HC to get a stay order from executing the FIR filed against him in 2017. The plea was rejected by the high court, after which the CBI that is investigating the murder case, raided the latter’s residence at Malaprabha nagar in Dharwad to take him into custody. But officials said he escaped from the house just a few minutes before the raid on Sunday morning.

Yogeshgouda, who was a BJP member of Dharwad ZP member, was hacked to death by an armed gang when he was exercising in the gymnasium belonging to Congress MLA Kulkarni on June 15, 2016.

Congress MLA Kulkarni who is the prime accused in the case, is said to have had a political rivalry with Yogeshgouda, as he had planned to contest against him from his constituency in the 2018 Assembly election. Based on the deceased’s family’s complaint an FIR was filed against him under the Section 302(murder) of the Indian Penal Code in 2017 at the Dharwad Suburban Station.

He was arrested and lodged at Hindalaga prison in Belagavi in 2018. The high court Bench of Dharwad granted him bail in 2020 with the condition that he cannot enter his home district, Dharwad, as there were possibilities of influencing the eye witnesses in the case against him. Kulkarni won the 2023 state Assembly elections from his Dharwad Rural constituency by remaining out of the constituency.