5 of Dandupalya gang acquitted of murder

The High Court of Karnataka has acquitted five members of the notorious Dandupalya gang by setting aside the lower court's order.

The lower court had sentenced Krishna, Thimma, Venkatarama, Dodda Hanuma, and Munikrishna to life imprisonment for the murder of 19-year-old Vedamurthy, a resident of HRBR Layout, Banaswadi, in 1999.

The accused moved the high court challenging the lower court order. A division bench, headed by Justice R B Budihal, acquitted them on the grounds that there is no evidence against them.

Chinnappa, another accused in the case, had died during the trial in prison.

Vedamurthy, a first-year computer science student, was down with fever and alone at home. His father C Anand and mother Mangala had both gone to work. When they returned, they found their son dead with his throat slit. Cash, jewellery and other valuables were missing.

The Dandupalya gang mostly operated in the outskirts of Bengaluru in the late 1990s and early 2000s.