Kundapur: RTI activist Vandaru Vasudeva Adiga had gone missing on his way home on January 7, 2013. On Jan 12, his body was found in a decomposed state at Emmedoddi of Kadur village in Chikkamagaluru district.
Dr S P Boralingaiah, the then-SP of Udupi, had ordered a thorough investigation into the matter and four persons accused in the crime were nabbed in Bengaluru on Jan 14 that year.
When astrologer’s stars went wrong
During interrogation, the arrested persons revealed that astrologer Vandaru Ramesh Bairy was the mastermind behind the killing. He was subsequently arrested from Mumbai. Adiga and Bairy reportedly had a dispute in land matters.
That a popular astrologer, who had been held in high esteem by the public in and around Vandaru, was involved in the murder had surprised a large number of people, even to the point of disbelief.
Those arrested earlier, Subrahmanya Udupa – a close relative of Bairy – besides contract killers Raghavendra, Umesh, Naveen and Vijayasarathi, have already secured bail.
But Bairy’s bail applications in a court in Kundapur and higher appeals in Udupi sessions court, state high court and the supreme court were turned down.
Finally, after his having spent two years and three months in jail, his latest bail application in the additional district and sessions has received a positive response. He has been granted conditional bail by magistrate Rajashekhar V Patil, on proviso that he attends court every time he is summoned.