JOIN USA doctor from Bangalore paid with his life for his win in a game of cards.
A body was found near Kamanur Gate in Mulbagal on Sunday. On investigation, the police identified the dead as Nagaraj Gupta, an Ayurvedic practitioner at Girinagar.
Nagaraj had a flair for winning in the game of cards. Suspecting that he may have earned a lot of money through his winning streak, his friends conspired to kidnap him for ransom.
The suspects are Murthy of KR Puram, Dinesh Kumar alias Bhutto of Lingarajpuram, Srinivas alias Seena of Tamil Nadu, Jeeva of Lingarajapuram, Hemanth of Prakashnagar, Shankar of Basaveshwaranagar and Nagaraj of HAL.
Trap set
Police said one of the suspects invited Nagaraj home, and the unsupecting doctor accompanied the friends in their car. When they approached Ganapati temple in Girinagar, the suspects used chloroform to knock him out. But when Nagaraj collapsed, they panicked and strangled him. They dumped the body near Kamanur Gate.
After the body was found, the police distributed hand-outs containing the doctor’s photo to gather details about the victim. Friends and relatives identified the body. As there were no external injuries, they assumed he had died of cardiac arrest.
‘Unnatural death’
However, the police registered a case of unnatural death and began investigating. The probe indicated the possible involvement of the doctor’s friends. When the police searched the car of one of the friends, they found a bottle of chloroform.
During interrogation, the friends confessed to the crime. The police arrested the suspects and produced them before the court which remanded them in judicial custody. Based on the information provided by them, the police seized two cars used in the crime.