Mystery behind missing person's murder cracked

Udaygiri police have succeeded in cracking murder case of a man, who was believed to have gone missing from the city, recently.

Two persons—maternal uncles of second and fourth wives of the deceased have been held in this regard.

Chandrika, one of the wives of Shankar (deceased), had lodged a complaint with the police on December 22, alleging that her husband had not returned home since December 18.

During investigation, the police personnel received an information from their counterparts in Tarikere in Chikka- magaluru district, about finding a body that matched the features of the missing person.

The body was recovered from Lakkolli canal in Bhadra reservoir in the district. The identity was confirmed with the help of victim’s mother, who saw the photographs of the dead and identified it as that of her son.

Following this, the investigation was intensified with the investigators collecting information on Shankar’s family background. It was learnt that Shankar had married four women and had issues with some of them. It was how the police could reach the suspects Swamy, 37 from Yaraganahalli and Mani, 35 from Manasi Nagar here, the maternal uncles of second and fourth wives of the deceased respectively.

The duo, who confessed to strangulating Shankar to death, revealed that they killed him after forcefully getting him drunk.

On the day Shankar went missing, they had taken him to a secluded place, near Vardhaman Nagar, around 10.30 pm. After confirming that Shankar was in an inebriated condition, they strangulated him with a wire, besides kicking his private part. Later, they took the body to Lakkolli canal in a car and disposed off the body. Before throwing his body into water, they denuded the body, destroyed tattoo and disfiguring his face with a boulder to mar his identity.

Interestingly, the duo fearing that the dead person may haunt them as a devil, nailed the body’s head and foot, a belief still practiced by the people to ward off devils in the case of unnatural deaths.

A car, two blades, wire and clothes worn by the deceased at the time of his death have been recovered from the accused.

The police team led by Inspector P P Santosh busted the case, with PSI Bhaskar among other personnel in the team.
DH News Service