The corporator was arrested from a resort in Tamil Nadu’s Salem on Saturday. According to police, he was produced before a magistrate at midnight and was sent to 14 days of judicial custody.
So far, the CID has arrested nine people in connection in the case even as the Karnataka High Court is hearing a petition where the Advocate Association of Bengaluru has sought a CBI investigation, accusing the local Mahadevapura police of shielding the accused. The High Court in the latest observation had said that Dharini’s life could have been saved if the state police were proactive in taking action based on police complaint by Dharini.
Dharini was found dead at her Vivekananda Street residence in A Narayanpura ward by her mother on New Year’s day earlier this year. According to the police complainant, Congress corporator V Suresh and his associates had disconnected water and electricity supply in her house. The complaint said that the corporator was pressurising the mother-daughter duo to give up the property.
Prior to her death, Dharini and her mother had also filed a complaint against the corporator and his aides with Mahadevapura police but that did not help. She had even met Bengaluru City Police Commissioner T Suneel Kumar in this regard. Following her death, police have registered an FIR under SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act and abetment of suicide.
While speaking to TNM, lawyers alleged that senior police officials were acting at the behest of the political leader and shielding him throughout, Whitefield DCP Abdul Ahad denied any wrongdoing on the part of the police.
