Bengaluru: Mother of three convinces six relatives to kill youth ‘obsessed’ with her

A mother of three mobilised six of her relatives and beat her 21-year-old lover to death with stones in the city.

Six suspects, including two women, were arrested on Tuesday but the woman remains at large.

In the early hours of Sunday, Hoysala police received information about a body dumped in front of a medical store at 5th Cross, KP Agrahara, southwest Bengaluru.

When Raghukumar B G, an assistant sub-inspector from the KR Agrahara police, drove to the spot at 1.57 am, he found a body with fatal head injuries.

Police couldn’t immediately identify the victim but CCTV footage showed four men and three women dragging a man on the road and smashing his head with a stone at least a dozen times.

On Monday night, police learnt that the victim was Manjunath Balappa Jamkhandi, a native of Badami, Bagalkot district. He had left his mobile phone at a medical store to be charged.

Once his identity was established, police started gathering clues about the killers. They collected details of all Bagalkot natives living in KP Agrahara.

Police succeeded in arresting six of Saroja’s relatives: Premavva, Akka Mahadevi, Manjunath, Kiran, Channappa and Kashinath. Saroja is at large.

According to police, Saroja lives with her children in Bagalkot while her husband works in Dubai. She had become close to Jamkhandi who was much younger than her. Over a period of time, he became possessive and began pestering her.

From Bagalkot to Bengaluru

Saroja came to Bengaluru a week before the murder and stayed with her relatives. Jamkhandi found out where she was. He then travelled to Bengaluru and met her on Saturday night. He also insisted that she return to Bagalkot and live with him.

Jamkhandi, who was jobless, also pestered Saroja for money.

Saroja had already told her relatives about how Jamkhandi was harassing her. In a fit, they all killed him after he abused them, according to police.