Two landlords were hacked to death over property disputes in the City. Papaiah, 36, and Venkataswamy, 52, were killed at Shantipura near Parappana Agrahara Wednesday night.
Both the victims and the accused were landlords and had invested huge sums of money in real estate after they entered into joint ventures with top builders and multinational companies.
Recently, Ramesh and Doddaiah, relative of Papaiah, locked horns over some disputed land that they had invested in. Papaiah advised them that a portion of the land belonged to the government and that they were trying to illegally occupy it.
The topic was discussed at the gram panchayat meeting a fort village night ago too. In front of the elders, the two had a showdown.
At one point, Papaiah tried to manhandle Ramesh and caught hold of him by his collar.
From then on, the two were reportedly baying for each other’s blood and waited for an opportunity to strike.
On Wednesday night at around 10.30 pm, a six-member gang armed with weapons attacked and virtually butchered Papaiah. Venkataswamy, who was with Papaiah, also suffered major injuries and succumbed at a hospital during the wee hours of Thursday.
Within 24 hours, a team of police, headed by Assistant Commissioner of Police Subbana, managed to solve the case and arrested all the six accused, including the main accused Vijaya Kumar, and seized the weapons used for the crime. Preliminary investigation has revealed that Vijaya Kumar is Ramesh’s son.
Six arrested
The Subramanyapura police arrested six persons who were allegedly involved in cases of attention diversion and recovered Rs 3 lakh and two bikes from them.
The suspects are: Rajesh, 27, Subramani, 20, Venkatesh, 20, Sharavan, 24, all residents of OG Kuppam village, Nagari taluk, Chittore district in Andhra Pradesh; Uttarman, 40, and Naresh, 24, both from Gandhinagar, Thiruverumbur taluk, Tiruchirapalli district in Tamil Nadu.
The suspects were relatives and had rented a house in Hosur. Rajagopalan, a resident of Subramanyapura, went to Syndicate Bank at Doddakallasandra on January 10 and withdrew Rs 2.5 lakh.
He kept the cash in the car and asked his driver go bring a tender coconut. When the driver went out, the suspects dropped two currency notes of Rs five and Rs 10 near the car door and told Rajagopalan that his driver had dropped some money. When the victim got down to pick up the money, the suspects grabbed the opportunity and fled with the cash bag.
The gang were involved in 12 similar cases in the City. They had also robbed citizens in Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Tirupati, Hosur, Krishnagiri, Chennai, Salem, Coimbatore and Madurai.
