Psycho voyeur, intimate videos and an axe murder

An auto-rickshaw driver and his wife are accused of killing a man who allegedly extorted Rs 4 lakh from them by threatening to leak their intimate videos. The deceased, whom the police described as a psycho-cum-peeping Tom, had even demanded sexual favours from the auto driver’s wife.

Manjunath, 35, the auto driver, had met Santhosh in the course of his chit fund business. Santhosh had surreptitiously placed cameras in the bathroom and the bedroom of the couple’s house in Laggere, North Bengaluru. He later showed them intimate videos and demanded money. Fearing for their reputation, the couple gave in and paid him nearly Rs 4 lakh over five years, a senior police officer said.

Things reached a breaking point when Santhosh allegedly started misbehaving with Manjunath’s wife, Savithri, 28. Vowing to kill him, the couple invited him over to discuss a business matter on the night of November 15. Soon after Santhosh arrived, they killed him with an axe, packed his body in a gunny sack and dumped it on the compound of a private school.

During the investigation, the jurisdictional Nandini Layout police reviewed the CCTV footage of the school. It showed Manjunath’s auto-rickshaw near the school around the time of the murder. Police then checked the CCTV footage of the couple’s house. It showed the couple leaving and coming back after some time. The footage timings matched. Police inferred that the couple left home after killing Manjunath and returned after dumping the body.

Police arrested the couple and they are believed to have confessed. The couple hails from Huliyurdurga, Tumakuru, and has two children.

The Rajagopalanagar police had arrested Santhosh in 2013 under the stringent Pocso Act for filming an underage girl and blackmailing her into marrying him. Santhosh spent six months in prison and married the girl after his release, police said.