Bengaluru: Khokhar murder case solved; routine arrest leads to prize catch
Bengaluru: When the Suryanagar police in Bengaluru Rural district nabbed 12 people for allegedly preparing for dacoity, they didn’t have a clue that they had in fact, caught the killers of Air Commodore (Retd) Parvez Hamilton Khokhar.
The former IAF officer was murdered two-and-a-half years ago and a thorough grilling led five of them to confess to the sensational murder. Investigations revealed that it was a clear case of murder for gain, although killers could not get any valuables from Khokhar's sprawling villa at Smilee Greens Estate Club off Hosur Road in Hebbagodi police limits. He was found murdered on November 24, 2014.
Police said they got information about a gang carrying out burglaries in bungalows located in the area. On Feb 9, Suryanagar police got information that an 11-member gang was waiting to commit dacoity on Chandapura-Ramanasagara Road.
Police swung into action and arrested them all. Based on their information another man was arrested. R. Srinivas, 21, M. Girish, 33, V. Subramani, 32, N. Nagaraju, 28, Satyanarayan, 28, S. M. Suresh, 38, Y. Manjunath, 24, N. Subramani, 29, N. Thimmaraju, 22, N. Babu, 26, M. Babu, 26 and M. Ravindra, 30, were the arrested.
All the accused are residents of Anekal taluk. They confessed to their involvement with 20 cases, including Khokhar's murder and 15 house theft cases.
"When they were grilled about the murder, it was revealed that R. Srinivas, M. Girish, V. Subramani, N. Nagaraju and Satyanarayan were involved. They confessed to conducting a two-day recce of his villa and had planned to commit dacoity. The five men parked a jeep behind the villa. Satyanarayan stayed in the vehicle and Nagaraju remained at the entrance to keep an eye out for passersby, while three others went inside" the police said.
"When they failed to enter through the front door, they broke open the terrace door instead. They searched for valuables in the two rooms on the first floor, but drew a blank," the police said.
They went to the ground floor and locked Khokhar’s sleeping wife Pramila inside her room. Khokhar, who was awake, tried to catch them, but was overpowered. One man smothered him and the others tied his limbs with cloth.
Noticing security guards in the vicinity, they escaped through the kitchen door," the police said. Police have seized diamonds, gold, silver, and a Rolex watch, worth Rs 1.25 crore in all.
They also seized a revolver, 20 live rounds, and original documents of a property worth Rs 60 crore, stolen from the house of one Zubair Ahmed, in Lakshminarayanapura on July 20, 2016. Ahmed is a businessman who runs a private company and a software firm.
The accused had reportedly tried to fudge the land documents and made futile attempts to sell if off, the police added.
