Bengaluru: A woman sub-inspector, head constable and two police constables, who were on duty at the Vishwanathapura police station, had a shock of their lives on Sunday night when a 24-year-old man walked in with a severed head of his friend, whom he had murdered for not returning Rs 7,000 due to him.
The accused, Shashi Kumar, had kept victim Manjunath’s head in the storage under the seat of his Honda Dio scooter and rode for 13 km before surrendering at the police station. Shashi had murdered Manjunath at a eucalyptus grove on IVC Road in Uganavadi in Devanahalli taluk, the police said.
Manjunath (23) was a car driver and a resident of Kempathimmanahalli, while Shashi is a farmer and a tractor driver living in Uganavadi, the police said.
Their fight was over Rs 27,000 that Manjunath (23) had borrowed from Shashi. Over time, Manjunath had paid back Rs 20,000 but was refusing to return the rest. “Whenever Shashi asked for his money back, Manjunath would abuse him in a filthy language. On some occasions, Manjunath had even taunted saying Shashi did not have any proof of his taking the money,” a senior police officer said.
Around 8 pm on Sunday, Shashi called Manjunath for a drink at a bar near Uganavadi Gate. After the party, Shashi took Manjunath on his bike to a eucalyptus grove on IVC Road in Uganavadi and again demanded the money. When Manjunath started verbally abusing him again, Shashi pulled out a dagger that he had brought with him and stabbed Manjunath repeatedly. After that he severed Manjunath’s head, put it in his scooter and rode to the Vishwanathapura police station, where he surrendered with the murder weapon around 10.15 pm, an investigating officer said.
Since Shashi was involved in a previous case of desecrating a statue in Uganavadi and had a warrant against him, the head constable recognised him and conducted inquiries. A case of murder was registered on Sunday night and DySP Nagaraj is the investigating officer, said Circle Inspector Jagadish.
Manjunath’s body was shifted to the taluk hospital on Monday morning for the postmortem and was later handed over to the family. Manjunath got married just four months ago, while Shashi, who too is married, has a four-month-old daughter, the police said.
