D Ayyappa Dore, the former vice-chancellor of Alliance University, was found dead on Wednesday after he was allegedly hacked to death at RT Nagar's HMT Ground.
According to the police, Ayyappa left his residence in RT Nagar on Tuesday night for a walk after dinner at around 11:30 pm. His body was found in a pool of blood around 6 am on Wednesday morning at the HMT Ground, which is less than fifty metres away from his residence and from the jurisdictional police station.
“His wife went to bed, and realised that he had not returned home only the next (Wednesday) morning. She went out to search for him. By then, the police on patrol duty had discovered the body. It was part of his daily routine. He would take the house keys with him as he often returned late and didn’t want to disturb his wife,” said a senior police officer speaking to The Hindu.
Investigating officials said that they suspect he was attacked from behind as soon as he set out for his night walk and that the killers might have tracked his routine and knew that he used to take late-night walks at the playground near his home.
Ayyappa is the former VC of Alliance University and an RTI activist. He is survived by his wife Pavana Dibbur, two daughters and an eight-year-old son. He also had political ambitions and had floated the Jana Samanyara Party in 2017 and unsuccessfully contested in Muddebihal constituency in Vijayapura district in the 2018 Assembly elections.
He was also involved recently in a tussle with a revenue officer. “Recently, Ayyappa and an RTI activist had collected some information about the officer. They accused him of raising fake bills. The officer denied any wrongdoing, but when they threatened to share documents with television channels, he agreed to meet them,” a close associate of Ayyappa told the Times of India.
The meeting was set to take place next week outside the KPSC (Karnataka Public Service Commission) office.