Udupi police crack two back-to-back murder cases

Police Superintendent K T Balakrishna said the district police successfully have tracked down the impending threat of mass murders by nabbing the culprits involved in two back-to-back murders.

Speaking to reporters, he said the police could track down the details of the murder that had taken place of the person who was registered under missing complaint. He said the deceased was Santhosh Nayak, 38, from Sannakkibettu in Hiriyadka. He was involved in fraud cases and was killed by Varwadi  Praveen Kulal, on December 19, 2016, at Kothnakatte in Heeriyadaka.

He said Praveen Kulal was given supari (contract killing) by the industrialists and businessmen who were deceived by Santhosh Nayak, following which Kulal tracked down the whereabouts and kidnapped Nayak and took him to the forest areas near Heeriyadaka. He was harassed by Kulal every day to disclose about the whereabouts of the amount he had taken from the businessmen. However, Nayak did not yield to the torture and finally succumbed to the injuries happened due to the harassment.

The house of Nayak was also ransacked by Kulal and his wife and some relative were also kidnapped for a while. The SP said Nayak was buried in the dried well in the forest in Heeriyadaka. In the place where Nayak was harassed and murdered, all attempts were made to mislead the police by clearing off the evidences. Kulal brought the carcasses of the dead cattle and spread over the area and burnt it. Although Nayak was kidnapped in December 2, his family members lodged the complaint on January 4, 2017, due to fear of Kulal.

Elaborating over the chain of events that took place in the aftermath of the murder, the SP said that after the murder, Kulal was also hacked to death by his rivals in Hiriyadka. Kulal had given a contract to Mambettu Santhosh to kill Santhosh Poojary (alias Santhu) who was lodged in Hindalaga jail in Belagavvi. The person who was assigned the job was also lodged in the same jail and he revealed the same to Santhu after his return from the court. Kulal had given him the job when he met Mambettu Santhosh in court. Santhu, along with others, conspired the murder of Kulal and got rid of him while staying inside the jail.

The SP said that acting on a tip-off and tracking down the clues, the police were able to nab the culprits involved in the crime killing Kulal. Once the arrest took place, the police interrogation revealed the murder of Nayak and also the impeding murder proposals.

However, the officer declined to throw light on other various aspects. One Sujith Pinto had given Rs 1.50 lakh to Mambettu Santhosh to finish off Kulal. It was a plan hatched by Poojary sitting in the jail, he said.

The police have arrested Prasad from Erlapadi (28), Dayananda from Mangaluru (36), Wilfred Arthur alias Vinnu from Udupi (42), Jayanth Pai from Heeriyadaka (65), Krishna from Pernanankila (28), Mahesh Achari from Marne (30), Ramesh from Pernanankila (26) and Prakash Kulal (34). Of them, Jayanth Pai and Wifred are the businessmen in connection with the murder of Santhosh Nayak.