Wife among four held for man's murder

A woman, who had hatched a plot along with her paramour to kill her husband, has been arrested by Talkad police.

Neelavathi, wife of Basavaraju alias ‘Chikkavanu’, of Bheema Madrahalli in T Narsipur taluk, is the accused. Following her arrest, the police apprehended her paramour Siddaraju, of Eshwaregowdanahalli in Nanjangud taluk, and his friends Basavaraju and Revanna.

On March 14, the police had recovered a body with a towel around the neck, from River Cauvery at Hemmige village. A chit with a cellphone number was found on the body. When the investigators called the number, the person who received the call introduced himself as Mahadevaswamy of Bheema Madrahalli. He told the police that he had given the chit to Basavaraju.

When probed further, Prathiba, 12-year-old daughter of the deceased, and the villagers pointed their fingers towards Neelavathi.

Neelavathi, who confessed to hatching the murder plot, revealed that she decided to get rid of her husband as he was frequently quarrelling. On that ill-fated day (March 12), Neelavathi convinced her husband to take her to a temple in Thayur.

Later both had planned to visit Biligere, Neelavathi’s sister’s place.

As planned by Neelavathi, Siddaraju and his friends stalked the couple when they alighted the bus at Thayur gate. Siddaraju, who attacked Basavaraju, strangulated him with his towel. The trio later  transported the body on a two-wheeler to the river.
On March 23, Siddaraju and his two friends were apprehended at T Narsipur bus stand, according to SP Abhinav Khare.

Vehicle lifters held

Devaraja police have arrested three vehicle lifters and have recovered eight two-wheelers worth Rs 2.6 lakh from them.

The accused, identified as Ayaz-Ur-Rehman, aged 20 years, and Syed Shah-e-Alam, 22, from Shanthinagar and Chandrashekar, 34, Chikkadanahalli, Hunsur taluk, had lifted the vehicles from different police stations limits.

Rehman and Alam had stolen two vehicles in Devaraja police station limits, while Chandrashekar had lifted six vehicles worth Rs two lakh. Following Chandrashekar’s arrest, cases registered in Devaraja, Nazarbad, Vijayanagar and V V Puram in the city and Nanjangud and K R Nagar in the district were solved.

The police team was led by Inspector H M Kantharaju, consisting of SI K Lepaksha, according to a press release from Police Commissioner M A Saleem.