5 held in bid-to-murder case

With the arrest of five people, including two minors, the JC Nagar police claim to have solved the March 5 attempt to murder case of Shivakumar Savadi, the nephew of former minister Lakshman Savadi.

Three of the arrested have been identified as Vinay, 23 from Kengeri, Manja, 21, from Srinagar, and Shivaprasad, 21, from Girinagar.

Savadi, 28, was attacked by the gang on Harris Road after he had dropped his fiancee at her hostel in Benson Town. Savadi underwent a 10-hour surgery at a hospital, before his condition stabilised.

Personal rivalry

According to police, Savadi was attacked over personal rivalry. On February 20, he was engaged to Lakshmi V Y, a BA student of Mount Carmel College. This angered one of Lakshmi’s acquaintances, Vinay, who hoped to marry her.

Police investigations revealed that Vinay, a pre-university dropout and employed as a sales representative at an MNC in the City, had befriended Lakshmi on Facebook last December. He had proposed to her, but Lakshmi rejected it.

“Vinay hatched a plan to get rid of Savadi, so that he could marry Lakshmi,” police said. Vinay contacted his acquaintance Manja, a petty criminal in Srinagar, to help carry out the crime.

“Manja gathered his associates and agreed to eliminate Savadi,” police said.

Previous attempt
The March 5 attack was not the first time the gang attempted to kill Savadi.

Police said Vinay and Manja had travelled to Athani on February 27, in an attempt to smother Savadi to death with an excessive dose of chloroform. Savadi had escaped on that occasion and had thrown stones at his assailants.

However, Savadi did not even register a police complaint in connection with the attack.