Murder shatters Lalbagh morning calm

Murder shatters Lalbagh morning calm
Bangalore, DH News Service:
The victim was identified as Chandrashekar Babu alias Ittamadu Babu, a financier, realtor and BJP activist.

Morning walkers in Lalbagh were rudely jolted when a 38-year-old man was hacked to death by unidentified men, right in front of the victim’s mother on Saturday morning. The victim was identified as Chandrashekar Babu alias Ittamadu Babu, a financier, realtor and BJP activist.

According to Siddapura police, Babu, a resident of AGS Layout in Subramanyapura, was in the habit of taking a morning walk with his family. As per his daily routine, Babu, his mother Rukminiyamma and her sister Mariyamma Jayanthi entered the Lalbagh garden from the Double Road gate around 6 am.

He parked the car near the Lalbagh hillock, even as the two women alighted and began their walk. A gang that was apparently waiting for him, pounced on Babu as he locked the car and was about to join them. While one of them hit him on his head with an iron rod, the other three attacked him with swords and chopped his head.


Hearing her son’s cry, Rukminiyamma rushed towards him but before she could take him into her arms, he collapsed. “We were 30-40 steps ahead of him and we thought he was checking the car doors and would join us.

I used to advise him to stay away from politics but never dreamt of a tragedy like this,” the weeping mother told the police.

Police said Babu was close to rowdy Katraguppe Linga and was helping him financially. This might have irked rowdies Parandhama and Cycle Ravi. In the midweek of March, the Central Crime Branch (CCB) police had arrested Linga when he was trying to hatch a plot to eliminate Parandhama, the police said.

In 2005, Babu’s name figured in the rowdy-sheeter list at CK Achukatu police station. He was A15 (accused 15) in a case of abetment. His foster brother Ramaiah, who was one of the accused, had confessed to the police that Babu had financed them.

Krishna, a childhood friend and driver of Babu, told Deccan Herald: “He never had enemies but was all geared up to contest the next corporation election. Last time, he had gained some experience after contesting the Zilla Panchayat elections from Uttarahalli. Basically, they are landlords and he was doing a good business. Earlier, he used to get extortion calls from Central Jail. In this connection, he had also complained to the CK Achukatu police station.”

The joint commissioner (Crime) Alok Kumar was fuming after his visited CK Achukatu police station on Saturday as Babu’s files and records were learnt to be missing. It was Kumar, as the DCP (South), who had given the approval to open the rowdy-sheeter file.