Representative image of a dead body.
Credit: iStock Photo
Bengaluru: An officer from the Central Crime Branch (CCB) of the Bengaluru police was found dead in Ramanagara on Monday. The deceased is Thimmegowda, 44, a police inspector with the crime branch’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW).
According to the police, Thimmegowda was found hanging from a tree in a deserted area near Bidadi, where he stayed with his family, after being alerted by some locals. Since Thimmegowda was not in uniform, the passersby did not realise that he was a police officer.
When the investigators, including Ramanagara Superintendent of Police (SP) Karthik Reddy, reached the spot, it was discovered that the body was of Thimmegowda. While no note was discovered, police found Thimmegowda’s ID card.
“The body had no visible injury marks. The body was moved to a hospital for autopsy and things will be clear once we receive the report. Since the probe is in the initial state, we cannot comment on the cause of death,” an investigator said.
Police suspect it to be a case of suicide but have yet to rule out other angles. Some of Thimmegowda's kin told Kannada news channels that he was "under pressure at work in a recent case".
The incident has come in the backdrop of the death of a 34-year-old police sub-inspector (PSI) in Yadgir on Saturday. The FIR named Yadgir Congress MLA Chennareddy Patil Tunnur and his son Pampangouda Sunny Gowda. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is probing the case.
Suspended last year
A well-placed police source revealed to DH that Thimmegowda was temporarily in charge of the Attibele police station in Bengaluru Rural district in October 2023 when 14 people were killed after a fire broke out at a firecracker godown.
Thimmegowda, along with some other officials, was placed under suspension.
“A subsequent departmental and magisterial inquiry gave a clean chit to Thimmegowda and he was reinstated to service a few months later,” the officer, who requested anonymity, told DH.
Another officer said: “Thimmegowda was deputed to the CCB nearly a month ago and was part of the EOW.”
A police source said that Thimmegowda was also accused of "promising to marry a woman, impregnating her and then refusing to marry her once she delivered the baby". A case was registered in 2007 in Hassan and Thimmegowda was set to face trial, the source added.