Man kills wife to cover up another diabolic murder

A police investigation into the suicide of a 40-year-old woman in Bengaluru Rural district has uncovered two cold-blooded murders.

The woman didn't commit suicide. She was actually killed by none other than her husband who feared she might tell the police about a 60-year-old man whom he had murdered at the behest of his employer. The motive? Real estate worth Rs 15 crore.

It all started when the Avalahalli police received information about Sudharani's suicide at Nimbekaipura village on the outskirts of Bengaluru on September 18, 2018. She was thought to have set herself ablaze. But an inspection of the crime spot led the police to conclude it was murder. They had found bloodstains on the wall of her home. Her husband, Venkataswamy, soon confessed to the crime.

But more surprise lay in store for the police. As they dug deeper into the motive for the murder, they learnt Venkataswamy had murdered one Krishnappa at the behest of his employer, S Ramesh (50). But it wasn't just another murder. There was something far more diabolic.

Ramesh, a real estate businessman, had planned to grab an acre and eight guntas near Belathur as the land remained unclaimed for long. He learnt that the land was in the name of one Nanjappa, who had received it as a gift from the Mysuru king in the mid-1920s.

Ramesh fabricated the land documents in the name of one Venkataramappa (90) by disguising him as Nanjappa. He then took the ownership of the land from the Banaswadi sub-registrar's office, claiming to be the caretaker of Nanjappa.

At this juncture, Ramesh hatched a plan to eliminate Nanjappa to gobble up the property. He roped in a gang and found a random man who resembled Nanjappa. Besides Venkataswamy, other members of the gang were Shankarappa (55), of Bangarpet, Dhananjaya J (57), of Kamalanagar, Krishnappa alias Stamp Vendor (50), of Guttahalli near Hoskote, Venkateshappa M (60), of Kammasandra, M Keshavamurthy alias Keshava (41), of Seegehalli, and A Venkataswamy (43), of Nimbekaipura.

Ramesh and his gang picked up the random man — Krishnappa (60) — from a bus stop in Mulbagal, Kolar, on the pretext of giving him a job. They then contacted a doctor named Kulkarni and gave Krishnappa laxatives (loose motion tablets) laced with alcohol, resulting in his death.

The gang then took Krishnappa to the doctor by giving his name as Nanjappa and took a death certificate from him in the name of Nanjappa. Venkataswamy was then sent to immerse Krishnappa's ashes into Cauvery River at Srirangapatna.

But after returning home, Venkataswamy spilt the beans to his wife, Sudharani. When Ramesh and others learnt that Sudharani knew the whole story, they got her killed, too.