APMC President Kadabagere Srinivas Murthy, alias Dhaba Seena, who was shot at in broad daylight last week, has regained consciousness and will be speaking to the police on Thursday evening.
Two bike-borne assailants had followed Srinivas Murthy on February 3 from his home in Basaveshwara Nagar to the venue of the APMC meeting. While he was returning from the meeting, the assailants shot at Srinivas Murthy’s car 13 times.
The attempted murder in broad daylight had shocked Bengaluru.
The APMC President took three bullets and was in a coma after he was admitted to Columbia Asia Hospital.
He regained consciousness on Thursday and the police may record his statement in the evening, a senior police official said.
Two days ago, the police had raided the homes of Agni Sridhar, a known face of Bengaluru’s underworld and several of his associates, after receiving a tip off that Sridhar was harbouring the men who were involved in Seena’s shooting.
The police had arrested seven persons including big names in the underworld including Bachchan, Silent Sunil and Onte Rohith.
Following these arrests, the rowdy syndicate in the city reportedly held a meeting at an apartment in Sarjapur, located close to the city’s outskirts, and were planning an attack against the city police, sources said.
The Central Crime Branch sleuths have detained 20 rowdy sheeters, who they believe were at the meeting.
Media reports suggest that four of them have been arrested and are being questioned.
However, police said that they are close to nabbing the actual culprits responsible for the shooting at Yelahanka and said that they had sufficient leads. “Things will become clearer after obtaining Kadabagere Srinivas Murthy’s statement,” a senior police official said.
Srinivas Murthy, who was with the BJP, had defected to the Congress in 2015. Speculation was rife in the media that the shooting was a politically motivated one.
Many fingers were earlier pointed at Yelahanka MLA SR Vishwanath. Local media reports suggested that the MLA had allegedly ordered the hit on Srinivas Murthy.
However, MLA Vishwanath, after the Assembly session told media persons that he had nothing to do with the attempt to kill Srinivas Murthy.
“There has been a lot of blame game in the media that I had ordered the hit on Kadabagere Srinivas Murthy but I had nothing to do with it. I knew Srinivas Murthy only through my interaction with him while he was with the BJP. We were associates and nothing more. I did not hire people to kill him. I am willing to be a part of any interrogation in relation to the shooting and I will offer any help in bringing the culprits to justice,” Vishwanath said.
Kadabagere Srinivas Murthy alias Dhaba Seena has several cases including murder, attempted murder and extortion cases filed against him at the Nagashettyhalli Police Station. His brother, Poison Rama, has over 30 criminal cases filed against him in several police stations across the city.