A Special Court for MPs and MLAs in Bengaluru on Friday sentenced Congress MLA Vinay Kulkarni and 15 others to a life term for the 2016 murder of BJP leader Yogesh Gowda.
Yogesh Gowda, a BJP member and former Dharwad Zila Panchayat member, was hacked to death at his gymnasium in Dharwad on June 15, 2016.
All accused have been sentenced to life imprisonment, and the court imposed a fine of Rs 30,000 on each of them, reported news agency ANI.
Kulkarn was a minister at the time of the incident.
The verdict comes as a major development in the case, which has been under investigation for several years.
The court concluded that the murder was carried out as part of a planned conspiracy and accepted the prosecution's argument regarding the involvement of the accused.
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According to a report by Newsfirst, the court examined the role of multiple individuals in the case before delivering its judgment.
Those sentenced in the case include Vikram (A2), Kirthi Kumar (A3), Sandeep (A4), Vinayak (A5), Mahabaleshwar (A6), Santosh (A7), Dinesh M (A8), Ashwath (A9), Sunil KS (A10), Nazeer Ahmed (A11), Shahanawaz (A12), Nuthan (A13), Harshith (A14), Vinay Kulkarni (A15), Chandrashekar Indi (A16), and Vikas Kalburgi (A18).
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Initially handled by local police, the case was transferred to the CBI in 2019 when the BJP came to power.
The central agency has recorded statements of 113 witnesses and arrested Kulkarni in 2020. The MLA spent over nine months in jail before receiving bail from the Supreme Court. The court ordered the CBI, which investigated the case, to take custody of the accused.
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