JOIN USAccording to K A Nanaiah, the investigating officer, he got suspicious when he noticed that Shubha was not her usual self in the video footage recorded during her engagement with Girish.
“While watching the video I could sense that there was something wrong with Shubha as she was completely detached from the entire affair. While speaking to her family friend and beautician Hema, I got to know that she was not happy with the engagement.
Shubha had even requested Hema to talk to her parents about the matter. That was the first time when I zeroed in on Shubha and started my investigation centred around her,” Nanaiah said. Not only Hema, one of Shubha’s friends also revealed the same to the police.
The second clue which went against Shubha came from the couple, who had taken injured Girish from the spot to the hospital in their car.
“Soon after the incident, Shubha had stopped the couple’s vehicle and requested them to help her to take Girish to the hospital. Surprisingly, Shubha had shared the front seat along with the couple while a severely injured and motionless Girish was lying on the back seat,” he said.
The plot
On December 3, 2003, Shubha and Girish had dinner at a restaurant ‘TGIF’ in Indiranagar and had gone to air view point on Koramangala Ring Road as she wanted to see the plane landing. “It was meticulously planned by Shubha, her boyfriend Arun, Dinesh and Venkatesh. Arun had approached his cousin Dinesh with the plan to eliminate Girish by promising him a hefty amount to start a new business. In turn Dinesh had approached Venkatesh and promised him a mobile phone after the successful execution of the plan,” Nanaiah said.
“We had to analyse nearly 100 messages sent and received by both Shubha and Arun on that day. While having dinner, Shubha had messaged Arun all the details and had also asked him to get ready for the action. In all 53 messages were exchanged between 2.30 pm and 10.30 pm on that day. This apart, the presence of Arun’s mobile phone in the vicinity of the scene of crime provided police another clue. During the course of investigation, we got to know that all four of them had a meeting at BMS College 20 days prior to the incident. Telephonic conversations dropped drastically soon after the incident,” he said. Infact, every time police asked Arun to come to the police station, he would call back Shubha saying that he was nervous, Nanaiah added. After a 47-day-long investigation process, the police finally arrested all four of them on January 21, 2004.
Venkatesh, who had hit Girish with a shock absorber, was in judicial custody till Wednesday since then. Dinesh had spent four years in judicial custody and was out on bail after that. Shubha and Arun got released on bail within five months of their arrest.