JOIN USA City court on Monday convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment “serial killer” Chandrakant Sharma, his wife and son for murdering S V Raghavan, a retired engineer of Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom), on January 10, 2008.
Sharma, a native of Nashik, is alleged to have murdered 21 people in Maharashtra between 1978 and 1981, before shifting base to Bangalore in 1985. His criminal antecedents had come to light after the Kempegowda Nagar police arrested him for Raghavan’s murder in 2008.
The judge, Kalpana Kulkarni, also fined Sharma (52), wife Harsha (47) and son Monto (25) Rs 15,000, Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000 each, respectively. Raghavan (62), a resident of Nanjamba Agrahara in Chamarajpet, had rented out a house to Sharma in HBR Layout in 2007.
Sharma had not paid the rent for nine months. Raghavan went to the HBR Layout house on January 10, 2008, to collect the rent from him after Harsha called him up to come over to collect rent. Sharma, his wife and son pinned down Raghavan on a sofa, smothered him with a pillow and strangled him. They also stabbed him in the abdomen, the police said.
Subsequently, the trio carried Raghavan’s body in a car and drove off to a culvert on National Highway 7 near Sooligere in Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu where they doused it with petrol and set it on fire.
The Krishnagiri police identified Raghavan from an identity card found near the body. They then contacted his family in Bangalore on January 1, 2008.
The victim’s son, Madhavan, had by then made a complaint to the police about his missing father.
Sharma had murdered his landlord with the intention of usurping his property. He had created a fake sale deed, stating that Raghavan and his wife, Geethamani, had sold the house to him for Rs one crore after forging the couple’s signatures.