Sudhir Angur, the chancellor of Alliance University, had been plotting to "kill" Ayyappa Dore for a long time but fast-tracked the mission after the latter demanded his dues of Rs 4.5 crore "within 24 hours".
The tight payment deadline was set with a warning: Any failure to make the payment will lead to Dore supporting Sudhir's brother, Madhukar, in the siblings' bitter legal battle for control of the sprawling private university in southern Bengaluru.
This is the crucial context that explains Dore's brutal murder in RT Nagar on the night of October 15, according to a senior police officer who interrogated Sudhir.
Sudhir had taken Rs 9 crore from Dore and repaid half the amount by various cheques. On October 9, six days before his murder, Dore called up Sudhir and demanded the remaining sum within 24 hours. If Sudhir failed to make the payment, Dore threatened to support Madhukar in the case pending before the high court under the Registration of Companies Act. The next hearing in the case is in November. Dore also threatened to replace Sudhir with Madhukar as the chancellor.
Sudhir told the police that he had no money to pay Dore and tried to convince him but the latter refused to listen. He could not imagine the chancellor's post slipping away from his hands. He didn't want to take Dore lightly as the latter had "a lot of other businesses".
Sudhir told the police that he was so frightened by Dore's warning that he "fast-tracked" the plan to murder him. He contacted his henchman, Suraj Singh, and instructed him to kill Dore "as soon as possible".
The senior officer said that since the plan was sudden, Sudhir paid Singh only about Rs 20,000, asked him to hire five assailants and promised each of them Rs 20 lakh "once the job was done".
Sudhir and Singh were arrested on October 17 and remained in police custody until October 30. A court has remanded them in judicial custody.