Karnataka: Cops no bar, Ravi Belagere calls Sunil from custody

Bengaluru: Ravi Belagere, journalist and editor of Kannada weekly tabloid ‘Hai Bangalore’, who is in police custody, allegedly contacted his colleague Sunil Heggaravalli over phone and asked him, “Did you tell the media that you had a relationship with Yashomathy?”

Sunil, against whom Belagere had allegedly given a supari, said that he got the call from Belagere around 9.30 pm on Sunday. “I got the call from the number of a common friend, Madhu. I thought that Madhu had called to know what happened between me and Belagere. But he said, ‘One minute, Ravi anna will speak’. Before I could say anything, Belagere had taken the phone and asked me in an intimidating voice, ‘Did you tell the media that you had a relationship with Yashomathy?’ I was taken aback as to how a man in police custody could call me. I just replied, ‘Why should I say that? When did I have relationship with her?’ Immediately, he disconnected the call,” Sunil alleged.     

Heggaravalli said he was shocked that a man in police custody could get access to a phone and intimidate a victim. “It is shocking that how a person in police custody can get access to a phone and intimidate someone. It speaks a lot about our system,” he said.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that Belagere is cooperating with the interrogators, but is reluctant to speak when they ask why he gave the supari to kill Sunil.

Sources in the CCB said that the questioning was almost over and they were unlikely to seek an extension of his police custody when it ends on Monday. “He has answered most of the questions, but is not opening his mouth when we ask him why he gave the supari. His silence suggests that he has done something. However, we will continue questioning him till we get a satisfactory answer,” an official said.

Meanwhile, the CCB police have recorded the statement of Belagere’s second wife Yashomathy as part of the probe. “She has said that even she was shocked when her husband was arrested on Friday. She said that Sunil and she interacted over official matters, and their relationship was nothing beyond that,” the police said.

On Sunday, the police questioned Lokesh Koppad, a reporter with ‘Hai Bangalore’. “As the phone call details report revealed that calls were made from Koppad’s phone to Shashidhara, we questioned him. Shashidhara told that Belagere used to call him using Koppad’s phone and Koppad was also present when Belagere gave him the revolver and bullets to kill Sunil. His statement was recorded, but it cannot be revealed now,” the police said.

A police team is still in Vijayapura searching for the accused, Viju Badager, an associate of sharpshooter Shashidhara Ramachandra Mundewadi.

Heggaravalli seeks police protection
As the investigation into the alleged involvement of ‘Hai Bangalore’ editor Ravi Belagere in hiring a contract killer to get his colleague Sunil Heggaravalli killed entered the third day on Sunday, Sunil approached the police seeking potection for him and his family.

Heggaravalli met City Police Commissioner T. Suneel Kumar on Sunday and sought police protection, saying that he and his family had threat for their lives. Heggaravalli told the police that he and his family were living under constant fear of getting attacked and that they needed protection.

Heggaravalli told the police that he along with his wife Suchita and eight-year-old son live in an apartment in Vasanthpura. Belagere has already planned his murder and after his arrest, there was a fear that his men or fans may attack him and his family. “He is an influential person. 

Post his arrest, anything could happen to me and my family,” he told the police.