Hitman worked at Belagere’s school, office: Cops

BENGALURU: Ravi Belagere, the tabloid editor who was arrested on Friday for allegedly hiring a contract killer to eliminate a former employee Suneel Heggaravalli, had bailed out the hitman Shashidhar Mundewadi earlier, said investigators. They said the plot to kill Heggaravalli was hatched in 2014. Mundewadi had worked as a security supervisor at Prarthana school run by Belagere and also as a helper at the ‘Hai Bengaluru’ office, police said on Saturday.

According to police, Mundewadi was involved in crimes in Bagalkot and Belagavi and came in contact with Belagere when the journalist was writing a book in 2001. Belagere also helped him secure bail and provided some legal help. He soon grew close to Belagere.

In 2011, Mundewadi was appointed as security supervisor in a post that was created for him at Prarthana school. His job at the school was to manage a set of guards. He would visit the newspaper office daily when Heggaravalli was working there. Heggaravalli was aware of his criminal record. One year after working at the school, Shashi, as Mundewadi was popularly known, quit his job and returned to his hometown.

“When Ravi decided to eliminate Heggaravalli, he approached Shashi in 2014. Shashi then came back to the city and got information about Heggaravalli’s whereabouts,” a senior police officer said. In order to locate his target’s address, Shashi disguised himself as a courier employee and called Suneel stating that he had a book to deliver. Suneel gave him the address but grew suspicious as no book was delivered.

Belagere asked for blank papers, cigarettes: CCB

During the interrogation on Saturday, Belagere reportedly asked the police for blank papers in order to write down his statement for the CCB. The officer added, “He also kept asking for cigarettes but the Assistant Commissioner of Police did not allow him to smoke repeatedly.”