BJP worker found hanging in Bengaluru outskirts, video message names ‘local leader’

Bengaluru: A local BJP worker was found hanging from a tree in Anekal on the southern outskirts of Bengaluru on Friday, police said.

Police have arrested two people in the case.

Before the suspected suicide, Praveen Kumar, 35, made a 14-minute-long video, blaming a local BJP leader and several others for his death. The video was uploaded to his Facebook video with a request to share it widely so that “I get justice”.

Police said Kumar, a resident of Koranuru in Anekal, was a local BJP worker. He was found hanging from a tree behind a school around 9 am on Friday.

Police believe that Kumar ended his life after 2 am. The video was uploaded to Facebook around this time.

In the video, Kumar states that some individuals assaulted him on Thursday night over a financial dispute. He identified them as Kiran Gowda, Srinivasa Babu, Harish ‘Gokula Fashion’, Bhaskar Narayanappa, Madhu Gowda, Bhagya, Muniraju Gowda and Saravana. Kumar said that these individuals threatened to “fix” him in an NDPS (drugs) case and urged the police: ‘Yaarne bitru Kiran na bidabedi’ (don’t spare Kiran at all). Kumar alleged that Kiran had “committed crimes” using Instagram and Facebook that were blamed on him.

Based on a complaint from Kumar’s father, Anekal police registered an FIR for abetment to suicide. CK Baba, Superintendent of Police (Bengaluru rural), said that two individuals had been arrested in the case.

A police source identified the arrested suspects as Kiran Gowda and Harish.

Baba denied financial nor political reasons behind the suicide but stated that a personal feud with the brother of one of the suspects appeared to be the trigger.

The FIR notes that Srinivasa Babu, a local BJP leader, and another person named Bhagya had called up Kumar on Wednesday and threatened to kill him. And on Thursday, they summoned him to a villa in Nayakanahalli, also near Anekal, and assaulted him.