Deep in debt, man kills daughter, jumps before train

Two bodies, one of a 34-year-old man and another of a three-year-old girl child, found in Bidadi and Ramanagar respectively last April, are found to have a very close connection.

The man, deep in debt, had killed the child—his daughter—before jumping before a running train.

Santhosh, a cashier at a bar and restaurant in KR Pet in Mandya district, killed his daughter, Tanmayi, atop Revanasiddeshwar hill in Ramanagar before committing suicide.

The incident occurred on April 10 but it emerged just a week ago that Tanmayi was Santhosh’s daughter, said the Ramanagar police.

Santhosh was in deep financial trouble as he had taken various loans. At that time, his wife Mamatha became pregnant with second child.

But he told her that if another baby was born, it would be difficult for him to manage. Deeply frustrated, he suggested that they both commit suicide along with their daughter, said the police.

Just two days before the incident, on April 8, the couple went to see Santhosh’s relative near Pandavapura. Santhosh took Tanmayi along and told Mamatha he was going to buy fruits and flowers.

Mamatha waited for him but when he didn’t return even late at night, she called him up. Santhosh responded after several calls, and asked Mamatha not to wait for him or for Tanmayi as they would never come back. He then hung up.

A panic-stricken Mamatha and her relatives looked for him in the surrounding areas but in vain, the police said.

Grave mistake

On April 10, Santhosh called up Mamatha and said he had committed a grave mistake. He asked her not to look for Tanmayi and that even he would not be alive. He also told her she would get the news of his death the next day, and hung up.

A distraught Mamatha called the police who, upon sifting through Santhosh’s call detail record, rushed to the Bidadi railway station where his body was found lying near the railway tracks.

On April 11, the local police recovered a child’s body atop Revanasiddeshwar hill.

The Ramanagar police recorded it as a suspicious death, but could not identify the child.

While sifting through the details of those who had gone missing in Mandya and Mysore districts recently, they came across a case from Pandavapura. 

The details of two cases — of Pandavapura and Ramanagar — were almost identical. The Ramanagar police immediately contacted their Pandavapura counterparts and shared the information.

Mamatha was called to identity the child, and did so based on her dress. She had the shock of her life when the police disclosed that Tanmayi was murdered by none other her own father atop Revanasiddeshwar hill in Ramanagar.