Auto driver betrayed and killed by friend, wife

An auto-rickshaw driver was allegedly murdered by a friend whom he had sheltered in his house and lent his three-wheeler to drive and make a living. The friend started an affair with his benefactor’s wife and later killed him, police said.

The murdered auto driver is Karthik K V, 25, a resident of Arkavathi River Road, Srinagar, West Bengaluru.

Karthik was a good friend of Sanju’s, a fellow auto driver. Sanju had neither a home nor an auto to make a living. Karthik gave him both. Sanju would drive the auto during the day and Karthik at night.

But this well-intentioned arrangement proved dangerous for Karthik.

As he did the night shift, his wife Ranjitha drew closer to Sanju, and they started an affair.

Karthik soon sensed that something was fishy between them. But before he could do anything about it, Sanju and Ranjitha decided to eliminate him. Sanju roped in a cousin named Subramanya for the job.

On July 29, the pair hoodwinked Karthik and took him to Channapatna where they hit him with an iron rod, attacked him with a knife and bludgeoned his head with a stone.

They packed the body in a plastic gunny bag and threw it in a grove next to a drain near Rajarajeswari hospital, off Mysuru Road, the same night.

Three days later, on August 1, Ranjitha went to the jurisdictional KG Nagar police, saying her husband has gone missing.

Even as the police team led by inspector M L Chetan Kumar tried to trace Karthik, the latter’s sister Keethana tipped them about Ranjitha’s affair with Sanju.

When police tried to contact Ranjitha, she went incommunicado. They then picked up Sanju for questioning, and he confessed.

Police subsequently recovered the body, which had begun to decompose. On Wednesday, it was handed over to the family after the post-mortem. Ranjitha remains at large.