Trio held for auto driver's murder

The Thyagarajanagar police have arrested three persons for allegedly murdering an auto driver and have recovered a knife and an autorickshaw.

 The suspects are Venugopal, 30, a resident of Jayanagar 7th block, Harish, 24, from Magadi Main Road and Pratap, 19, from Nagasandra.

They murdered Narayan-aswamy by slitting his throat, packed the body in gunny bags and abandoned it in Thyagarajanagar on February 5.

According to police, the suspects were known to the victim. The prime suspect Venugopal was a plumber, while Harish and Pratap were auto drivers. Three months ago, the victim had allegedly attempted to rape Venugopal’s wife when the latter was out of the City. She narrated the incident to Venugopal. He then decided to settle scores with Narayanas-wamy, police said.

“Since the two other suspects were close to Narayanaswamy, Venugopal told them to call him up and ask him to come to a room near Nagasandra Circle for a drink. When he went there, the trio made him drink heavily. Then, Venugopal slit Narayanas-wamy’s throat with a kitchen knife,” DCP (South) Sonia Narang said.

They packed the body in three gunny bags and kept it below an electricity pole on 2nd main road in Byrappa Block early morning on February 5 and absconded.

By night, the mother and sister of the deceased identified the body. The police arrested Harish first and two others later, all within 48 hours of the crime.

Cop opens fire

A fleeing chain snatcher sustained injuries after a cop fired at him in Jayanagar on Monday night.

According to police, Vijay Kumar, 30, took to heels after snatching a gold chain from a woman near Lakshman Rao Garden.

Police inspector S K Umesh, who was patrolling in the area, noticed the incident and chased Kumar. The latter attempted to attack Umesh with a dagger when the police officer opened fire on him with his service revolver.

Kumar, injured  on his left thigh, was admitted to Sanjay Gandhi Hospital and was stated to be out of danger. A gold chain and a dagger were recovered from Kumar.