A land dispute led to the murder of an advocate in Raibag, and police have now arrested eight individuals in connection with the crime, among them, three lawyers.
The arrested include Advocate Shivagouda Basagouda Patil from Bastawad, his juniors Bharat Koli, Kiran Kempawade, and Uday Mushennavar, along with Sanjaykumar Halabannavar, Ramu Dandapure, Suresh Nandi, and Manjunath Talwar. They are accused of abducting and murdering advocate Santosh Patil in April.
Two others, Nagaraj Nayak and lawyer Mahaveer Hanje, are absconding, and efforts are ongoing to locate them.
The investigation began after Santosh Patil’s wife filed a missing persons complaint. Police discovered that the victim was kidnapped en route to court, taken to a forest area in Ganeshgudi, Uttara Kannada, where he was killed and his body burnt. Bone fragments were later recovered, and DNA tests confirmed the identity.
Superintendent of Police Bheemashankar S. Guled stated that the motive stemmed from a conflict over 1 acre and 4 guntas of land in Raibag. “Santosh Patil had filed a civil case against Shivagouda in January. In retaliation, Shivagouda plotted his murder and agreed to pay ₹14 lakh for the act , ₹11 lakh of which had already been paid,” he said. “It is deeply unfortunate that lawyers conspired to kill a fellow advocate.”
