RTI activist found murdered in Chikmagalur

Chikmagalur/Udupi, 12 Jan 2013 (TOI): The body of a person that was found floating in the Madaga tank in Kadur taluk on Saturday has been identified as that of Vandaru Vasudeva Adiga’s of Shankaranarayan in Udupi district.

 

Adiga is credited to have unearthed scams using RTI and his family had claimed that there was threat to his life.

 

 

Chikmagalur superintendent of police N Shivakumar said that Adiga was missing since January 7 and his family had registered a missing person’s complaint.

 

On Saturday, passersby saw a body which was floating in the tank and informed police.

 

A bill in the name of Adiga helped police establish the identity of Adiga, 40, whose body was found with hands and legs tied, and a heavy stone attached to his leg to prevent the body from surfacing. When his family insisted on a postmortem, a team of doctors from Shimoga Medical College was summoned. After an inquest, the body was handed over to the family.

 

Adiga’s RTI queries helped unearth the big Jambittige scam and it forced people involved to cough up hefty amounts as fine. He had also unearthed many scams using RTI rubbing those involved in it the wrong way.

 

The Udupi police, from whose limits, Adiga, also a Congress party worker was allegedly kidnapped from Goliangady under Shankaranayana police station limits, had not been able to achieve any breakthrough in this case from the day of the incident.

 

Udupi SP MB Boralingaiah had earlier told TOI that Udupi police were looking at whether the land dispute with his neighbours, Ramesh Bayiri, Krishnamurthy and Shankaranarayana Bayiri, as alleged by Adiga’s mother Shrungeshwari, had any link with his disappearance.

 

Adiga’s mother in her complaint had suspected that the long pending land dispute, pending in the court, might also be one among several reasons behind her son going missing.

 

Police were also looking at his role as RTI activist as he had rubbed government officials and quarry owners the wrong using RTI Act.

 

On the day he went missing, Adiga had met his friend at Shiroor Moorukai at 8.30pm. When he did not return home till midnight, his friend Arun Kumar Shetty, Billadi gram panchayat member, lodged a complaint at Shankaranarayana police station.

 

His two-wheeler was found at a deserted place on Tuesday.