contractor death
Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Pratap Reddy said that seven police teams have been sent to various parts of Karnataka to collect evidence in the investigation into the abetment to suicide case against former Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister K. S. Eshwarappa and two of his aides in the Udupi Town police station.
Speaking to mediapersons in Udupi after meeting police officials, Mr. Reddy said that he arrived in Udupi to guide the investigating teams in the alleged suicide of civil contractor Santosh Patil. Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), which is an independent agency, has been requested to give its report at the earliest, he said.
“Investigation will take all aspects into consideration,” he said.
Mr. Reddy met police officials, who are part of the investigating teams, in the office of Udupi Superintendent of Police for about three hours from 9.30 a.m.
Police sources said that the investigating teams have taken two friends of the deceased – Santosh Medappa of Kodagu and Prashanth Shetty of Byndoor – to the places they had visited with Patil before arriving in Udupi on April 11.
Earlier, Inspector General of Police (Western range) Devajyoti Ray had told reporters that the death appeared to have been caused by consumption of a poisonous substance, and police had found a bottle of pesticide in the room of the lodge in which Patil’s body was found.
Police have seized the CCTV camera footage from the lodge.
