Karnataka officer's murder case solved, four held: Police

Bangalore, June 7 (IANS) Four people, including a cashier in a cooperative credit society in Bangalore, were arrested Thursday for the fatal attack on a Karnataka government officer known to have exposed scams in several such financial societies, police said.

S.P. Mahantesh, 48, was killed on a contract given by the cashier, Kiran Kumar, who feared that his misappropriation of the society's cash would be exposed as the officer had begun auditing the accounts, Bangalore City Police Commissioner B.G. Jyothiprakash Mirji told reporters here.

Mahantesh, deputy director in the audit wing of the state cooperative department, was found seriously injured near a hotel in central Bangalore on the night of May 15. He died in a hospital five days later.

Mirji said search is on for one more assailant.

He said Kiran, 25, was a cashier at the Shahakar Nagar cooperative credit society in east Bangalore and had used its money to lead a lavish life. Since Mahantesh had begun auditing the accounts, Kiran feared exposure and gave money to his four friends to kill Mahantesh, Mirji said.