‘Very serious offence’: No bail for advocate in Bengaluru gym trainer murder

Bengaluru gym trainer Vijay Kumar's decomposed body was found in the Bannerghatta forest area on June 9. (File Photo)A court in rural Bengaluru has rejected the anticipatory bail plea of an advocate accused of arranging the contract killing of a gym trainer for a real estate businessman, stating that practising lawyers should not involve themselves in crime as their duty is to reform society. “A practising advocate involved in murder cases is against his advocacy. An advocate should always work to reform society. Therefore, the offences alleged against the petitioner are non-bailable and also very serious in nature,” a Bengaluru district court ruled on July 22, while rejecting the anticipatory bail plea of advocate B Lokesh in the murder case.The 39-year-old advocate is accused of taking money from real estate businessman Prasad Rao, 50, to arrange the murder of gym trainer Vijay Kumar, 35, allegedly to end Kumar’s relationship with Rao’s daughter. Kumar’s decomposed body was found in the Bannerghatta forest area on June 9. Police investigations have revealed that he was killed on June 6 after being lured to a drinking party by a gang hired by Lokesh. The gang was led by Sriram, a local gangster in the Anekal region, who was a legal client of the advocate, the police investigations have revealed. A district court had rejected the anticipatory bail pleas of Rao and Lokesh on July 22. The advocate has now approached the Karnataka High Court with an anticipatory bail plea. On Monday, the high court issued a notice to the state and posted the matter for August 12. Evidence shows advocate’s involvement in murder case: Court According to the evidence placed in the district court by the police to counter the bail plea, Lokesh received funds from Rao and handed the money to the prime accused in the murder case through an associate to execute Kumar’s murder. The investigation papers presented in court “clearly go to show that since the deceased Vijay Kumar was giving trouble to the daughter of accused no.6 [Rao]”, he “gave supari to petitioner [Lokesh] to kill the deceased” by passing money through accused no.8 to accused no.1, the court noted.Story continues below this ad “According to investigation, it clearly reveals that in the WhatsApp/Face Time call conversation has been conducted between accused no.6 and petitioner,” the court said. The court also noted that Lokesh had gone missing, with his phone switched off, soon after the police arrested four accused on June 17. Lokesh was communicating with the main accused in the murder case before the murder of the deceased, “on the day of the murder, and after the murder,” the court said. “On perusing the materials available on record, the prima facie material shows the involvement of the petitioner in the above case by taking supari from the accused no.6, then he himself gave supari to other accused persons to commit murder,” the district court noted. “Taking supari to kill a person is not only a serious offence but also a heinous offence. From this act of this petitioner, the deceased was murdered by the other accused persons,” the court said.Story continues below this ad The probe has found that the advocate “gave money through accused no. 8 Anush, to A1, Sriram, a rowdy sheeter who was involved in several cases in the past. He (Sriram) and his friends killed the deceased Vijay Kumar,” the court recorded. Earlier this month, Lokesh moved the Karnataka High Court, seeking the removal of his name from the accused list. This was after the police sought to collect CCTV footage from his office to find visuals of his alleged meetings with the murder accused. The high court disposed of the matter on July 9, asking the advocate to seek bail from the court. Based on the call detail records of the victim and other evidence, the Bannerghatta police initially arrested four people—Sriram, Sumith, Venkateshaiah, and Babu, all residents of Anekal—for