Man connives with friends to 'murder' wife's 'lover'

A 32-year-old man, who is suspected to have murdered his wife’s alleged paramour with the connivance of his four friends, has landed in police custody with the other accomplices.

Police said Somashekhar, the prime suspect, had attacked the victim, Srinivas, on April 9 after his wife invited him over as per his instruction. Somashekhar had caught his wife, Shwetha, “red-handed”, speaking to Srinivas over phone on April 6. When a furious Somashekhar demanded explanation, Shwetha said she was just friends with Srinivas and would often talk to him over phone, police said, and added Srinivas was a “womaniser” and had many affairs.

On April 9, Somashekhar asked Shwetha to invite Srinivas over. She did so and when an unsuspecting Srinivas arrived around 11.45 pm, Somashekhar attacked him. He later called up his friends and narrated the incident.

Thereafter, Somashekhar and his four friends — Ranjith, 22, Jayaram Reddy, 50, Manjunath, 22, and Naveen, 27, all from Anekal — bundled an injured Srinivas into a van and took him to Begur lake. But on the way, they bludgeoned him with an iron rod and strangled him, police said.

Meanwhile, Srinivas’s brother Manjunath filed a missing complaint at the Electronics City police station. Police also received an alert that a decomposed body was found floating in the Begur lake.

Police then determined Srinivas’s identity and sifted through the call data record of his mobile phone. They discovered that Srinivas had made numerous calls to Shwetha. Stitching together the murder story, police zeroed in on Somashekhar and launched a manhunt for him, which culminated in his arrest from his native place, Kudlur in Chikmagalur district. The other suspects were apprehended in Whitefield.