By The News Observer Desk,
Ankola: In a swift breakthrough, police have detained four people in connection with the brutal knife attack on senior Congress leader Gopalakrishna Nayak in Ankola town.
Nayak, a close aide of Home Minister G. Parameshwara, was targeted by a gang of six assailants on Wednesday morning at Ankola while he was coming out of a hair cutting saloon. The attackers stabbed him multiple times in the stomach and head, leaving him seriously injured. Another person who was with him also sustained stab wounds in the attack.
The assailants arrived in a car registered in Goa and fled the scene immediately after the assault. Both injured persons were rushed to a private hospital in Ankola, where they are currently receiving treatment.
Acting on leads, police intercepted four of the six accused near the Majali check post as they were trying to escape towards Goa. The hunt for the remaining two attackers is still underway. Those accused who were taken into the custody by the police were travelling in a taxi towards Goa leaving behind the car which they had brought for the attack. They even had crossed the toll gate at Hattikeri and had almost reached the Goa border it is said. But the police based on the CC camera could trace them at Majali which is a border town of Karwar and Goa.
Investigators suspect this was a planned contract killing, with strong indications that a “supari” was issued to murder Nayak. Some of the accused are believed to be from Bihar. The gang had used a Goa-registered vehicle for the attack.
Uttara Kannada Superintendent of Police Deepan visited the spot shortly after the incident and is personally overseeing the investigation. A case has been registered at the Ankola police station.
The attack has sent shockwaves through political circles in coastal Karnataka, raising serious concerns about the safety of leaders in the region.
Reporting and Videography by Sainath Babrekar
