Cracking the murder of a 45-year-old man in a BMTC bus in February, the police have arrested a 60-year-old man and his two sons.

The Electronics City police said the man, Palabramaiah, and his sons Abhishek Bhanuprakash (34) and Dhanraj Ramkumar (24) are a gang of muggers from Andhra Pradesh, who snatch mobile phones of passengers in moving buses.

They have cases against them in the Mangalagiri police station in Andhra Pradesh.

The police probe revealed that Palabramaiah and the other two murdered Suresh alias Seetharam in a BMTC bus on February 21 due to rivalry and suspicion that he turned police informer. Suresh was related to the three men.

They found that Suresh was arrested for a robbery in 1992. In 1997, Palabramaiah was also thrown in prison in a dacoity case, in which a court had convicted him for nine years.

Palabramaiah believed that Suresh had turned police informer to get him arrested and was since waiting to avenge him. Meanwhile, in 2013, Abhishek was also arrested for murder and robbery, where his family again suspected Suresh to be the police informer.

Police sources said Palabramaiah had approached the village elders, who asked Suresh to pay Rs 30 lakh as compensation to his family. Suresh disregarded the decree, and settled down in Bengaluru.

Palabramaiah and his sons found Suresh at Konappana Agrahara and spotted him as he was alighting a bus on February 21. They chased him back into the bus and stabbed him multiple times, threatening the passengers into silence. They then fled the scene
after the driver stopped the bus.  

The men had made an attempt on Suresh’s life last year when they stalked him at Cubbon Park and attacked him. On that occasion, Suresh escaped with injuries.

The Electronics City police, who registered a case based on a complaint from Suresh’s family, tracked down Palabramaiah and his sons in Hubballi and arrested them.

They recovered mobile phones worth Rs 12 lakh and produced the accused before a magistrate, while also alerting the Mangalagiri police. The accused were remanded to judicial custody.