Gang of four hacks youth to death over alleged affair

A 27-year-old man was hacked to death by four unidentified assailants while he was loitering near his house in Mariyappanapalya, Rajajinagar late on Tuesday night.

The killers are suspected to have been aggrieved by his alleged affair with their relative.

Suresh Kumar was loitering in 3rd Cross, Mariyappanapalya, just a block away from his home when the armed assailants waylaid him around 10 pm. They picked a fight and began assaulting him although he did nothing to provoke them. They kept attacking him until he collapsed. Then, one of them swung a machete to the left side of Kumar’s head. In no time, they all fled, police said.

Kumar lay there in a pool of blood, struggling to breathe until one of his neighbours, Sowmya, saw him on her way home. She ran to his home to alert his sister, Bhuvaneshwari. The family then rushed to the spot and took him to a nearby hospital where he died of injuries, police added.

The family suspects that Kumar was murdered over an affair he allegedly had with a neighbour who belonged to a backward class. The girl, studying fashion designing at a college, had reportedly promised to marry him.

Kumar’s family had, however, disapproved of their relationship on the caste grounds. They originally hail from Tamil Nadu but had settled in the City long ago. Kumar was born in Bangalore. Most members of the family work as electricians.

But Kumar carried on with the relationship. He even refused to heed the warning by the girl’s parents who also opposed the relationship because of caste incompatibility. A month ago, they engaged the girl to marry a boy of their caste. Thereafter, the girl too distanced herself from Kumar but he kept calling her up and pressured her to elope with him. But she remained aloof, police explained.

The Rajajinagar police inspector said Kumar was not known to have had a financial dispute with anybody. He did not have criminal record either. The most probable motive, therefore, could be his alleged affair. The inspector further said that they had “concrete leads” and would apprehend the killers in a matter of days.