Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Dec 12: On Monday December 11, City Crime Branch (CCB) personnel urged the court not to grant bail to Ravi Belagere, whose role in hiring a person having links with the underworld for killing his former colleague, Sunil Heggaravalli, is being probed, taking account of the fact that he has high legal knowledge and therefore can destroy evidences which otherwise might be helpful in investigating this case.

The police said they want to get the mobile phones and a tab recovered from the possession of the accused scrutinized by experts for contents that might substantiate police case. As this requires time, and also because main witnesses in the case are staff of the media office run by Belagere, he needs to be under judicial custody for them to be able to adduce evidence without any apprehension, they argue. Advocate for Belagere had not filed any bail application, although the police submitted petition opposing bail to him.

Belagere, who has been allotted prisoner No. 12785, has been kept in the infirmary of Parappana Agrahara central prison after he was remanded to judicial custody till December 23 by the court of the additional chief metropolitan magistrate court here. He was subjected to health check before he was shifted into a ward of the jail.

Allegedly, Belagere had lent his licensed revolver to c killers to eliminate Heggaravalli. The police, during the search at his premises, found that Belagere owns a revolver and a double barrel gun, for both of which he possesses licences. However, the quantity of 94 rounds of live bullets found in his possession is much more than his eligible limit, they stated.

Police informed the court on Monday that Belagere was not cooperating with the investigations and would demand cigarettes from them. Police so far have given him cigarettes worth Rs 3,000 to keep him calm. As Belagere is extremely sick, they feel that if any anything happens to him during the time he is under their custody, they will be blamed for the same. They informed that he smoked around 10 cigarettes per hour.