Bengaluru: Techie who shot wife dead over affair had hired hitman for job; talks fell over money

Bengaluru: A 40-year-old techie, who allegedly shot his wife dead last month for having an affair, had originally planned to get her eliminated by a contract killer. He dropped the idea after the prospective assassin demanded more money.

Police have now arrested the suspected hitman — 35-year-old Moulesh from Salem, Tamil Nadu — for not alerting the authorities about the murder plot.

Selva Balamurugan (40) allegedly shot his wife, Bhuvaneshwari (39), with a country made pistol on December 23 and surrendered before the police soon after the incident.

During interrogation, Balamurugan disclosed to the police that he had initially planned to have his wife killed by a hitman. Acting on this information, Magadi Road police arrested Moulesh, a habitual offender lodged in Salem in a theft case, on a body warrant, a senior officer said.

Balamurugan had searched online for contacts and came in touch with Moulesh, who came to Bengaluru and stayed in a hotel for three days.

Balamurugan assigned him two tasks: work as a private detective to identify the person allegedly having an affair with his wife and then kill her at a location without CCTV coverage to evade evidence.

Balamurugan offered him Rs 1.5 lakh to execute the crime but Moulesh demanded more money, which the former refused to pay.

Moulesh then returned to his hometown without informing Balamurugan. Balamurugan then decided to kill his wife himself.

Police said Moulesh did not alert the authorities about the murder plot despite knowing Balamurugan's intentions. He was later arrested in a theft case and lodged in jail in Selam, from where police brought him to Bengaluru on Friday as part of the investigation.

Police said Balamurugan had travelled to Bihar in July 2025 to illegally procure firearms. While he had allegedly acquired two pistols, police recovered only one pistol along with two magazines from him.

Earlier investigations revealed that the software engineer had meticulously planned the murder, conducted extensive online research, and procured the illegal firearm by paying Rs 80,000, police said.