Benglaru: TikTok star among 13 held for murdering realtor

BENGALURU: Thirteen men, including a self-claimed TikTok star, have been arrested on the charge of killing a 32-year-old realtor in Kaggalipura, Ramanagara district, on Wednesday night.
The assailants, who had come in cars and bikes, hacked Vinod Kumar of Patanjali Layout on Kanakapura Road to death after dragging him out of his car, police said The accused are Manjesh alias Avalahalli Manja, Srinivas, Ravi alias Ravi Kiran, Naveen, Lokesh, Arif, Pavan, Mahesh, Madhu, Raghav, Vignesh, Sunil and D Madhu.
Naveen is known as TikTok Naveen or Smile Naveen. “A habitual offender, Naveen has uploaded more than 30 videos of him singing and delivering Kannada cinema dialogues on TikTok. Naveen renamed himself Smile Naveen after his ‘followers’ told him his smile was unique and stylish,” police said.
“Vinod was the nephew of Somanna, corporator from ward no. 196 in the city. Vinod was into several businesses, real estate in particular. Recently, he joined the stone-crushing business and his long-time friend Paramesh, a rowdy, was made in charge of the crusher. The murder was the result of a business-related rivalry,”an officer said.