BJP member and contractor Santhosh Patil, who accused senior Karnataka minister KS Eshwarappa of asking for a bribe worth 40% of the total cost of a project, was found dead on Tuesday, April 12 in Udupi. Preliminary investigations suggested that the contractor took his life in a lodge close to the main bus stand in Udupi. Santhosh, who is from Hindalaga in Belagavi, had been missing since Monday, April 11, and police officials are investigating a message he purportedly sent his friends stating that Eshwarappa was ‘directly responsible’ for his death, and that the Minister should be punished. Apart from Eshwarappa, Santhosh had accused officials in the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) of corruption as well.On Tuesday morning, Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai was informed in Mangaluru that the contractor had gone missing after leaving a note behind. The chief minister stated that he did not have any information on the matter.
Patil, had recently written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union minister for rural development Giriraj Singh alleging that Eshwarappa and his associates were harassing him for commissions. Eshwarappa claimed that he did not know the deceased. Patil, in his letters to the central government, had stated that he and six other contractors had implemented road projects in Hindala gram panchayat in Belagavi district in May 2021, but were not paid for the same. He claimed that the contractors invested Rs 4 crore for the project, but had suffered losses due to government delay in payments. Alleging that government officials were seeking a 40 per cent commission on the total bill, Patil claimed to have approached top BJP leaders with his grievances. “I am in great tension and have huge pressure from creditors who have given me finance on interest. If the payment and work order is not given immediately, then I do not have any option for myself,” he had said in a March 11 letter to the Union minister. “Our state minister RDPR department K S Eshwarappa told me to complete road work on 12-02-2021… we completed more than 108 works with a cost estimate of Rs 4 crore. More than one year has passed, but till today we have not received any work order nor single rupee from him or from the concerned authorities,” Patil said in the letter. Following the allegations, the Opposition Congress had raised the issue. “Full, free and fearless corruption allegations galore against Bommai govt & its ministers, yet PM-CM-ED-CBI-ACB remain on ‘mute mode’,” Congress in-charge for Karnataka Randeep Surjewala had posted on social media on March 28. “Complainant is a BJP leader. Does the BJP in Karnataka now symbolize khao aur khilao (eat and feed) the actual replacement for ‘na khaunga, na khane doonga’, Surjewala had said.