6 arrested in triple murder case

The arrested are Prashanth (27), Prabhakar (30), Umashankar (26), Chikkashyane Gowda (29), all from Vyalikaval, Sunil Kumar (21) and Kiran (22), both from Palace Guttahalli.

The police have constituted three special teams to look out for the other four suspects who are absconding, City Police Commissioner Shankar Bidari said.

Chikkashyane Gowda is a contractor with BBMP, while Kiran works in the marketing department of Karnataka Oil Federation. The four others are assistants with cable operators.

All the six are allegedly involved in criminal activities in Malleswaram and Vyalikaval areas. Due to an old rivalry, they allegedly killed Nataraj (24) from Vivekananda block in Palace Guttahalli, Somashekhar (23) from Gayatrinagar and Balasubramani alias Slum Bala from Muneshwara block in Vyalikaval.

Bidari claimed that this was not a gang war, instances of which have come down in the City over the past few years. Nataraj was involved in various criminal cases in Malleswaram, Seshadripuram, Basaveshwaranagar and Vyalikaval areas, while Somashekhar indulged in criminal activities in Seshadripuram, he said.

The police arrested three of the suspects soon after the incident from the second and third floors of the restaurant.

Three other suspects had gone to different hospitals in R T Nagar and Basaveshwaranagar for treatment, from where they were picked up later.