Mangaluru: A case of abetment to suicide has been registered against Karnataka Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) Minister KS Eshwarappa in connection with the death of a civil contractor. The police gave this information on Wednesday.
He said Eshwarappa has been made the first accused in the case. The FIR was registered on the basis of a complaint by Santosh Patil’s brother Prashant Patil, who had earlier leveled allegations of bribery against the senior minister. Patil was found dead at a lodge in Udupi in a suspected suicide case.
Minister Eshwarappa and his staff members Ramesh and Basavaraj have been named as accused in Prashant’s complaint. In the complaint, Prashant Patil expressed satisfaction that his brother had done the deed 4 crore in Hindalga village. Santosh had invested his money in the project and the work bill was pending. Santosh had met Minister Eshwarappa several times and requested him to release the amount.
But his close associates Basavaraj and Ramesh were demanding 40 per cent commission. Meanwhile, a forensic team examined the evidence at the place where Patil was found dead.
Patil’s death had sparked a major political controversy on Tuesday with the Congress demanding Eshwarappa’s removal, while its senior leader Rahul Gandhi hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and state Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai over the issue.
This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed. Only the title has been changed.