Police also found an eight-page suicide note that named Mahadevapura MLA Limbavali, and five others Gopi K, Somaiah, G Ramesh Reddy, Jayaram Reddy and Raghava Bhat.
A day after a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Aravind Limbavali was booked on charges of abetment to suicide of a businessman, Opposition parties in Karnataka on Tuesday demanded the legislator’s arrest.

The 47-year-old businessman’s body was found with a gunshot wound to the head in his car at Nettigere, 32 km from Bengaluru, on Sunday evening. Police also found an eight-page suicide note that named Mahadevapura MLA Limbavali, and five others Gopi K, Somaiah, G Ramesh Reddy, Jayaram Reddy and Raghava Bhat.

According to the note, purportedly written by the businessman, he invested ₹1.5 crore in Opus Club, a pub in the city, in 2018, which promised him a profit of ₹3 lakh and a monthly return of ₹1.5 lakh. But he allegedly did not get any profits from his investments. Limbavali is said to have tried to broker a compromise between other partners mentioned in the complaint, police said.
Based on the note and the complaint lodged by the businessman’s wife, an FIR was registered at Kaggalipura police station and the six accused were booked under Section 306 (abetment to suicide) of the IPC, said Ramanagara superintendent of police K Santosh Babu.

Congress general secretary in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Singh Surjewala, opposition leader in assembly Siddaramaiah and KPCC working president B Ramalinga Reddy visited the residence of the businessman.

Speaking to media on Tuesday, Surjewala termed the suicide as murder and demanded that the guilty be punished. “Corruption is directly responsible for ending of life by contractor” and now the businessman in Karnataka, he said.

“It is not a suicide case. It’s a murder. The contractor was a BJP leader, he also faced financial trauma. The reason behind businessman’s ending life was also finances. Why are BJP leaders interfering in financial issues?” asked Surjewala.
“Will the ruling BJP be able to compensate for the loss of the businessman to his family? The government must punish those responsible for his death. They should be brought to book irrespective of their status.”

Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah claimed that the incident should not have happened and the five persons mentioned in the suicide note should be arrested immediately. “The MLA should be arrested, otherwise he will destroy evidence. People are asking for mercy killing during BJP rule in the state,” he added.

The Aam Aadmi Party’s Karnataka unit also demanded the arrest of BJP MLA and former minister Limbavali in connection with the suicide.

AAP state campaign committee president Mukhyamantri Chandru said the case was a reminder of what happened to contractor, who died by suicide alleging demands for bribes.

“Police gave a clean chit to an MLA involved in the case without even questioning him once. Now, the BJP wants to induct the same minister in the cabinet. We do not want Limbavali to be let go without an investigation in the same way. We demand immediate arrest of all the accused including Limbavali in the suicide case,” he added.

Reacting to the allegations, Limbavali said the businessman was a BJP worker and had initially handled his social media account. He said he had tried to help the businessman. “I demand an inquiry for truth to come out,” he said, adding he doesn’t know why his name was mentioned in the death note.

Limbavali said the businessman had shared his problem in June or July 2022. “Based on the information and phone numbers he shared, I checked with them (Gopi, Somaiah and others) and asked them to do the settlement. They sought for time citing Covid, and as the issue was not resolved even after 15 days, the businessman again came to me and I then asked them to resolve issues immediately, as he was in financial distress,” he said.

“This much has been my involvement in the issue… subsequently at some event, on my asking, he said his issue was solved and thanked me,” Limbavali told reporters. “I had called the police station and asked them to try to solve the issue and help them reach a compromise, by involving both parties if the wife agrees, and accordingly they had reached a compromise,” he added.