A CBI team arrested five alleged supari killers of ZP member from the BJP, Yogeshgouda Goudar in Dharwad, in Bengaluru on Sunday.
Sources said Ashwath, Purushottam and three others from Bengaluru and Tamil Nadu were nabbed by the CBI, while they were trying to escape to Tamil Nadu.
Investigation by the CBI has revealed that Basavaraj Muttagi, who was earlier arrested by the CID and named accused number 1, had hired the gang to eliminate Goudar. The CID had arrested Muttagi and others from Dharwad on the charge of murdering Yogeshgouda. All are out on bail now. Goudar, 26, was hacked to death on June 15, 2016, at his gym in Saptapur in Dharwad, after throwing chilli powder on his face.
Not satisfied with the CID probe, Gurunathgouda, elder brother of Yogeshgouda, had sought a probe by the CBI, but the then Congress-JD(S) government had not obliged.
With the BJP assuming power in the state, the investigation was handed over to the CBI.Muttagi had filed a writ petition in the High Court, questioning the decision of the government to hand over the probe to the CBI.
The HC had stayed the probe by the CBI and the order was challenged in the Supreme Court.On February 20, the SC allowed the CBI to proceed with its investigation. Following this, the CBI team had intensified the probe and had interrogated several persons in Dharwad.
The CBI produced the accused before the JMFC court judge Vijayalakshmi Ghanapur at her residence on Sunday night. The judge remanded them in judicial custody and asked the CBI to produce them in the court on Monday.