I had 19 reasons to kill him, says Murugan

After winning the election, Nataraj took the rivalry to a different level, allegedly torturing Murugan and his aides and using the cops and the BBMP staffers to lodge false complaints against Murugan’s supporters and get them evicted from pavements where they did petty business.

Police said Nataraj had allegedly hired professional killers from Tamil Nadu to eliminate Murugan who survived two attempts on his life. When he got wind of Nataraj’s plot, he decided to murder Nataraj, police said.

These are some of the disclosures Murugan made during the preliminary investigation. He told the police there were 19 reasons that forced him to murder Nataraj. Some are as follows:

Mani, a close aide of Murugan, funded his (Murugan) poll expenses. A month after he became corporator, Nataraj is said to have publicly insulted Mani, referring to his caste in foul language.

Murugan had bought a house from Kalavathi Taayi Puttalingamma some 17 years for Rs one lakh. Nataraj used her and moved the court against Murugan, claiming he had forcibly evicted her from her house. When quizzed, she disclosed Nataraj’s intentions.

In a media interaction, Nataraj claimed Murugan had prepared fake voters ID cards and that he was the father of several boys and girls aged 18 years.

Nataraj pressured BBMP officers to evict his supporters - Shafiullah, a footwear seller on a pavement near Nataraj cinema, and Elumalai, a pavement vendor in Majestic.

He had forced the staff to demolish Jagannath Gare’s house in Gandhinagar on the charge of encroachment. He had also used two men who claimed that 33 houses on Risaldar Street were owned by their grandparents and that they were paying khata fee regularly.

They claimed they had documents and forced residents to vacate the houses. When checked, the duo did not possess any documents. Murugan later discovered they were employed by Nataraj to do so.

Nataraj had also claimed that Perumal Seth’s under-construction building on Seshadripuram II Main Road was constructed illegally and had demanded Rs three lakh from Seth.

He had employed his men to kill cable operator Gopi who had told Murugan about threatening calls he was receiving from coin telephone booths. Murugan was attacked by Nataraj’s men in Mantri Square. They followed him to kill him on more than one occasion.