The Central Crime Branch (CCB) cracked the sensational murder case of Hemalatha (43), who was murdered on August 11, 2009 at her Anjaneya Nagar residence in CK Achkattu.
Police said the accused, Nuthan Kumar (21), a final semester BMSCE (computer science) student has confessed to the crime. Incidentally, the victim’s son is a friend of the accused and is from the same college.

Since the jurisdictional police failed to crack the murder mystery, the case was transferred to CCB. “The case looked complicated as Hemalatha was widely connected and her call details ran into booklets. We knew the murderer was emotionally involved with Hemalatha, but it took time to tie up loose ends,” said an investigating officer.

Nuthan, while pursuing engineering, also ran an aerobics centre –– Matrix Fitness Centre on Girinagar main road. It was here that he met Hemalatha and over a period of time their intimacy grew. Quite often, he visited Hemalatha’s house and on many occasions, both travelled out of station. For the last two years, Nuthan got entangled in financial matters and on her advice he invested around Rs 2 lakh in chit funds (Rs 10,000 a month).

But when Nuthan decided to withdraw the money in order to gift a car to his father on his birthday, the relationship soured and Hemalatha started distancing herself. Enraged at the turn of events, he decided to teach her a lesson. On the ill-fated day, he carried a sickle in his college bag and landed at Hemalatha’s house. Both got into an argument and when she started threatening him with dire consequences, Nuthan attacked and killed her. In an attempt to destroy the evidence, he tucked her body under a cot, cleaned the area and carried her mobile phone.

After the crime, Nuthan went straight to Shaneshwar temple in Thyagarajnagar, then had pizza in an outlet near South End Circle, threw the mobile instrument and destroyed the SIM card. But Nuthan ran out of luck when the discarded instrument was picked up by an unknown person. The moment the instrument was in use, the cops managed to get hold of it.
Three calls made to Hemalatha by Nuthan on the day of the crime landed him in soup and all his smartness failed when cops interrogated him.

Background
Nuthan is the son of Suresh, an electrical contractor. He studied in Niveditha School, Gavipuram and passed out class 10 with distinction from Vijaya High School, Jayanagar. With 82 per cent marks in PUC from BHS college, Jayanagar, he had earned a seat in BMSCE on merit quota, the police said.