Lovers main suspects in gangster Lakshmana's murder

The Central Crime Branch (CCB) police arrested six accused, including a 21-year-old girl, on Monday afternoon in connection with the murder of gangster Lakshmana, who was hacked to death in broad daylight on March 7 in Mahalakshmi Layout.

The arrested have been identified as Rupesh R alias Rupesh Gowda (25), resident of RR Nagar and native of Channapatna, Varshini (21) resident of Jnanabharathi, Devaraj alias Kariya (24) resident of Nagarabhavi, Varun Kumar (24) resident of Vijayanagara, Hemanth Kumar alias Hemi, Madhu Kumar (21) resident of Magadi Road and Alok (24) native of Maddur. The CCB police had arrested Raja alias Cat Raja on March 9; another accused, Akash, is yet to be arrested.

All accused were presented before the I Additional Chief Magistrate Court on Tuesday and sent to 10 days’ police custody for further interrogation.

CCB nabs Hemanth

All the accused were arrested on Monday evening except gangster Hemanth, who fell into the police net on Tuesday.

The police got a tip-off that he was hiding near Hanumagiri temple near Annapurneshwari Nagar. CCB officials swung into action immediately and cornered him. When the police asked him to surrender, Hemanth attacked constable Anand and tried to attack inspector Harish, who fired at the criminal’s leg and nabbed him.

Hemanth is a history-sheeter at Byadarahalli and is wanted in murder, attempt to murder and dacoity cases. The Scorpio used in Lakshmana’s murder belonged to him. The vehicle was later recovered near Halaguru Lake.

Dangerous obsession

Varshini was eight when Lakshmana got married to Chaitra 13 years ago. As her father, Moote Harish, and mother, Padma, were close to Lakshmana she got along with Lakshmana.

But as years went by, Lakshmana became attracted to Varshini; so much so that he tried to woo her with money and costly gifts.

Preliminary investigation has revealed that Lakshmana had a lot of benami properties, which were managed by Harish and Padma.

Soon after the arrest of Varshini, Chaitra, wife of Lakshmana, posted on her Facebook account that Varshini used to call Lakshmana uncle, and Lakshmana, in turn, loved her as his own daughter. But both mother and daughter had murdered him, said Chaitra

Highlights from probe

A preliminary investigation found that Varshini, while being in London, had passed all the information about Lakshmana’s movements in Bengaluru to her lover Rupesh.

Police recovered the Scorpio used for killing Lakshmana from Halaguru and also found lethal weapons from the SUV. Police also seized another Indica car used in the crime.

All accused used new SIM cards for the murder and threw out the SIM card soon after the crime. Police recovered them and are examining the call detail records.

Police suspect that Lakshmana had funded Varshini’s studies in London.

Lakshmana assaulted Rupesh a couple of times in order to end the relationship with Varshini Police have also traced the bank transactions - Lakshmana sending money to Varshini and the latter routing it to Rupesh for hiring contract killers.

On February 18, Harish’s house was burgled and valuables looted. It is being suspected that it was done by Rupesh and associates and police are verifying the role of Varshini.