Bengaluru: Day after, Lokayukta office gets new metal detector

BENGALURU: A day after Lokayukta Justice P. Vishwanath Shetty was stabbed by a contractor at his office, due to security lapse, the door metal detector has been repaired and two more security personnel, one of them female, have been deployed to check visitors’ bags and identity cards with hand-held metal detectors.

Due to the severity of the situation caused by the security lapse, the Home Minister has suspended the DCP Yogesh, in-charge of security at Vidhana Soudha and Vikas Soudha.

Justice Shetty (74) was repeatedly stabbed by Tejraj Sharma after the judge told him that the corruption complaint filed by him has been closed.

An officer said, “We have been ordered not to allow anyone in without making an entry in the register and visitors cannot carry any packages or bags, other than documents. In case of a laptop or such expensive devices, they will be thoroughly checked by the policemen on duty. Even the documents and files carried by the staff at the office will be checked before letting them in.”

Alert attender

According to sources, who didn’t wish to be named, it was Justice Shetty’s attender Palini who saved him by displaying presence of mind and not caring for his own life.

As soon as he heard Lokayukta scream for help, he rushed inside the cabin, pushed the accused away and alerted the security.

The security personnel rushed to the cabin took Lokayukta to the hospital. Palini, meanwhile, went back and locked the accused inside the cabin.

Police custody for Tejraj

The accused, Tejraj was produced to the magistrate on Wednesday night after a two-hour long medical examination, which declared him mentally fit.

The local court has remanded him to five days police custody. On Thursday morning, Tejraj was taken to his house in Tumakuru by the Vidhana Soudha police and they questioned his relatives and friends.

The police said that Tejraj lived alone in a single-room rented house. His neighbours told police he was short tempered and they used to avoid him.

Case filed by Tejraj

The investigating officer said that Tejraj is a furniture dealer and had sold a wheelchair to the public instruction department in Tumakuru.

The chair broke down on the first day and the officials demanded that it be replaced with a new one. But Tejraj demanded them to issue tender for more than 15 chairs and other furnitures for the department in exchange of the new chair. When the staff refused, he filed a complaint with the Lokayukta against all the officers.  

In July 2017, he had written a letter to the deputy director of public instruction department, Tumakuru, stating that the almighty should punish the corrupt government officials and the letter had been addressed to the God himself.

According to the sources, he reportedly told the police that he was born on an auspicious day under the same zodiac sign of a Hindu god to end the corrupt practices in the government. He particularly chose Wednesday to attack as his astrologer had told him that it was an auspicious day for him.

However, the police will be investigating him for few more days to know the reason behind his frustration and the reason behind the attack.