Overview
- A Shidlaghatta JMFC court granted two days of police custody and rejected Rajeev Gowda’s bail plea to allow custodial interrogation.
- Investigators plan to probe his alleged escape route and whether others aided him while he was absconding, after earlier detaining a Mangaluru industrialist who has since secured bail.
- Police arrested the suspended Congress leader on January 26 at the Kerala border after tracking movements from Mangaluru using vehicle data and intelligence inputs.
- Two FIRs remain in force, including BNS sections 132, 224, 352, 351(3) and 56 in one case, and sections 352 and 353(2) in a second complaint tied to alleged provocative statements.
- The case stems from the removal of an unauthorised banner, a purported audio of an abusive call went viral, municipal staff protested, the High Court refused to quash the FIR, and the Congress suspended him.