Bengaluru: Within 48 hours of the brutal murder of a woman and her daughter-in-law at their house on Miller’s Road in Vasanth Nagar on Monday morning, the city police arrested three people known to the victims’ family on Wednesday.
The prime accused, Manish alias Ramesh, 29, is a resident of Akshaya Nagar, T.C. Palaya Main Road, Mahendra Singh, 29, is a resident of Shanti Layout Main Road, Devaraj Building in Ramamurthy Nagar and Devaram, 24, is a resident of Parameshwara’s House on Power Road, Kitakanur in K.R. Puram.
All the three were known to Dinesh, who is the husband of the victim Latha and son of the other victim Santhoshi Bai. The three accused pawned gold jewellery with Dinesh regularly, the police said.
Manish alias Ramesh was better known to the family as he also had a business relationship with Dinesh and was a frequent visitor to the house. Small-time pawn brokers, like Manish and Mahendra Singh – who gave out loans against gold at exorbitant interest rates, pawned the same gold with Dinesh for lesser interest to make a profit, the police said.
Murderer walked out with blood stained hands, clothes
The High Grounds police, who had formed teams to nab the accused, stumbled upon CCTV footage where they noticed a Honda Activa parked at some distance from Dinesh’s house with a man waiting near the vehicle.
Manish easily got into Dinesh’s house around 10.45 am on Monday as he was already familiar with the family. Manish knew that Dinesh had stocked all the pawned jewellery and large sums of cash at his house. Once inside the house, he asked Santhoshi Bai to give him all the pawned jewellery and cash, but she refused. Manish, who was carrying a machete with him, hacked at Santhoshi Bai. Hearing the commotion, Latha rushed downstairs from her first floor bedroom where her son was sleeping and she was also hacked to death with the same machete, the police said.
Manish then ransacked their bedroom lockers and collected 3.5 kg of gold jewellery and Rs 9 lakh cash. He put the gold and cash in a plastic cover and walked out with bloodstained clothes and hands towards his friend Mahendra, who was waiting near the scooter.
Both then rode towards Manish’s brother-in-law Devaram’s house in K.R. Puram. “Though Devaram was not directly involved in the crime, he will be booked for criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence. Devaram, instead of informing the police, collected the robbed booty from his brother-in-law,” an investigating officer said.
Dinesh tried to underplay cash, jewellery missing
Dinesh, husband of Latha and son of Santhoshi Bai, paid dearly for indulging in, what the police termed, illegal pawn broking business. He lost two members of his family, 3.5 kg gold jewellery and also Rs 9 lakh cash.
“We were skeptical as to why Dinesh was downplaying the amount of gold and cash that went missing from his house on the day of the crime. We later came to know that Dinesh was into pawn broking business with other small-time pawn brokers and he had unaccounted for gold and cash at his house. Manish, who knew about the stash, planned the strike,” an investigating official said.
“As he was conducting the pawn broking business without a valid licence or government registration, he did not declare it to the police. He has a wholesale chemical dealership in Balepet, which he runs along with his father Sampath. But his main source of income was from the pawn broking business,” the police said.
“Even on Wednesday, Dinesh maintained that only half a kilogram of gold and a small amount of cash was missing from his house. But the investigating officials were shocked when they recovered 3.5 kg of gold jewelry and nearly '10 lakh cash,” said Mr Sandeep Patil, DCP, Central Division.
The High Grounds police are not finished with the investigation with the arrest of the three accused. They suspect that more people could be involved in the crime and they would be arrested once the three accused are interrogated further. “The three accused were produced before court. We will seek their custody for further interrogation,” a senior police officer said.
