KOLAR: In an early morning operation, the Mulbagal police fired at a contract killer, an accused in the murder of Mulbagal city municipal council member Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Acting on specific information, a police team set out to arrest Balaji Singh, but the accused fired at the police team in his bid to escape. Mulbagal police inspector Lakshmikanth then fired at Singh and shot him in the leg. Balaji Singh has been arrested and admitted to the jail ward of the district hospital.
Giving details about the case, Kolar Superintendent of Police D Devaraj said, “We had formed several teams to investigate the brutal murder of Jagan Mohan Reddy. They were tracking the movements of the suspects in four states as the suspects were always on the run. During our investigation, we found out that this was a supari killing. Balaji Singh aka Gabbar has a notorious past and is a native of Mulbagal, currently residing in Bangarpet. The first case registered against him was in 2017 in Kolar after the assaulted a lawyer and made away with the latter’s Bullet motorcycle. The police had arrested him and his associate Deepu and they were jailed. The trial in the case is still on.
“Later on, he took Rs 6 lakh supari from his neighbour Bayakonda Gangamma, who wanted her husband Narayan, a hotelier in Mulbagal, killed. Balaji, along with his associates Zabi and Aslam of Bangarpet, smothered Narayan to death in his house. Gangamma then took him to hospital saying he had suffered a heart attack and the case was treated as an unnatural death.
“When he got caught in the Kolar case, police investigation revealed about the Mulbagal murder. A murder case was registered and the body was exhumed. Balaji, Zabi, Aslam and Gangamma were jailed in the case. Balaji threatened the witnesses and even got Gangamma to sign an agreement to give him two residential sites, promising her to get her acquitted. The agreement is still valid and he has been threatening to kill her for the last few months”, the SP said.
“On the other hand, Jaganmohan Reddy had a personal dispute with a youth named Jagan and his brother Dhanush. Balaji offered Dhanush to eliminate Jaganmohan Reddy for supari and committed the crime with his own sword, along with his associates. After the murder, they fled to different places.
“On Thursday morning, when our team was swooping down on him, he attacked constable Vinayak of Mulbagal police station, who suffered injuries in the head and left hand. We will take Balaji into custody when he is medically fit. The other accused too will be arrested soon. We have arrested two people, Nagesh and Manoj, in the case”, the SP added.