Bengaluru: A former corporator of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike and Janata Dal (Secular) leader Govinde Gowda, 58, was hacked to death in Hegganahalli cross on the city’s outskirts on Saturday.
According to Rajagopalanagar police, Gowda was allegedly waylaid on the main road at around 4.30 pm by a group of men armed with machetes and knives. Noticing that the attackers came towards him, Gowda attempted to run into a kalyan mantapa, where the group attacked him and stabbed him.
He was severely injured following the attack and was taken to a hospital in Sunkadakatte where he died, the police said.
Prima facie, said the police, the attack seemed to stem from a violent rivalry between two gangs.
It was in November 2016 that Gowda and his wife, Varamahalakshmi, 47, — also a former corporator — were arrested for allegedly hiring nine supari killers to kill Chikka Thimme Gowda, a local BJP leader.
This had escalated a turf war into a series of violent attacks, said the police, who believe that Saturday’s attack could also have been done through hit men. It was only recently that Gowda was released on bail.