Pramesh S Jain
A special court in Bengaluru on Wednesday convicted Congress MLA Vinay Kulkarni in the high-profile murder case of Yogesh Gowda.
The verdict was delivered by the Special Court for MPs/MLAs,which has been hearing the case related to the 2016 murder of the Dharwad Zilla Panchayat member.
The quantum of punishment will be announced on Thursday.
Out of 21 accused,17 have been found guilty.The court acquitted accused No.20,Vasudev Nilakenni,and accused No.21,Somashekar Nyamagoud.
Two others—A1,Basavaraj Muttagi and A17,Shivanand Biradar—were treated as approvers and declared not guilty.
The court directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to take all convicted persons into custody.
Charges under Sections 302 (murder),120B (criminal conspiracy),201 (destruction of evidence),148 (rioting with deadly weapons),and 149 (unlawful assembly with common object) of the CrPC were held proven.
Among those convicted are A2 Vikram,A3 Keerthikumar, A4 Sandeep,A5 Vinayak,A6 Mahabaleshwar,A7 Santosh, A8 Dinesh,A9 Ashwath,A10 Sunil,A11 Nazeer Ahmed, A12 Shanawaz,A13 Nuthan,A14 Harshith,A15 Vinay Kulkarni,A16 Chandrashekar Indi,A18 Vikas Kalaburagi, and A19 Channakeshav Tingarikar.
The case dates back to June 15, 2016,when Yogesh Gowda was hacked to death with lethal weapons while working out at a gym in Dharwad.
According to investigators,the murder was allegedly driven by political rivalry.Gowda,who had risen to the position of Zilla Panchayat president with Kulkarni’s support, reportedly refused to relinquish the post after the agreed period, leading to tensions between the two.
The rivalry intensified after Gowda won the Zilla Panchayat elections while lodged in jail in connection with an assault case.
A public altercation between Gowda and Kulkarni during a district meeting in April 2016 further escalated the dispute.
Initially,the case saw allegations of both political vendetta and land dispute angles.However,following sustained pressure,the probe was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2019 after the formation of the BJP government led by B.S. Yediyurappa.
The CBI,in its chargesheet,named Vinay Kulkarni as the 15th accused and alleged that he had misused his official position to destroy evidence.He was arrested by the agency in 2020.
The case had drawn significant public and political attention over the years due to its high-profile nature and the involvement of influential figures.
