Priest killed for wooing girl of another caste

The victim, Sandeep, 24, a resident of Jai Bhuwaneshwarinagar, was a priest at Vinayaka temple in Vinayaka Layout, Kengeri Satellite Town.

Police said the priest was in love with a girl from the same area but her parents were against marriage. In a fit of anger, the girl’s brother, along with his friend, killed him.
Sandeep lived in the temple and visited his parents at Jai Bhuvaneshwarinagar once in a fortnight. Sandeep’s uncle, who is also a priest, is attached to another temple in Kengeri Satellite town. Sandeep stayed at his uncle’s house in Kengeri at times as it would be convenient for him to begin rituals and pooja early in the morning.

Sandeep’s parents, Shrungeshwar and Sarojamma hail from Sringeri and are into catering business at Talaghattapura. Revathi, whom Sandeep loved, is the daughter of a merchant at Vasanthapura in Subramanyapura police limits. Both had met two years ago, when Revathi had come to the Vinayaka temple. They became friends soon and friendship turned into love.

Warnings

Revathi and Sandeep decided to marry despite belonging to different castes. Revathi often visited the temple to meet Sandeep and both chatted on cellphones for hours every day. Revathi’s parents warned and objected her moves and cited the caste factor as the reason. One of her relatives recently met Sandeep and asked him to stay away from her. However, Sandeep and Revathi neglected the warnings and continued to meet, police said.

Some days ago, Sandeep’s mother went to Revathi’s house and requested her parents to approve the alliance. Revathi’s parents allegedly did not treat her properly and sent her out refusing to accept the alliance. She requested Sandeep to forget Revathi and was in search of a girl from the same caste in Sringeri.

Revathi’s brother Preetham, a college dropout, allegedly hatched a conspiracy along with his friend to murder Sandeep. The duo came to know that Sandeep would be visiting his parents on Saturday night and decided to execute the murder.

The duo knocked on the door of Shrungeshwar’s house around 1 am, introduced themselves as Revathi’s relatives and claimed they wanted to meet Sandeep to finalise the discussion about the alliance. Sandeep was fast asleep in his room.
When Shrungeshwar’s daughter Archana opened the door, the duo pulled out their weapons. They spotted Sandeep asleep and slit his throat. Within minutes, Sandeep was lying in a pool of blood.

Shrungeshwar, Sarojamma and Archana sustained injuries on their heads when they rushed to Sandeep’s rescue. The assailants immediately left the place.

The three were shifted to a local hospital and were later admitted to Nimhans. They are stated to be out of danger. The police have launched a search operation to arrest Preetham and his friend.