Murder mystery solved, thanks to landlord who spoke up

Hameed Ashraf | NT

Bengaluru: Six people, including three women, were arrested as the city police identified the person who was found brutally bludgeoned to death near KP Agrahara in the city. As reported earlier by News Trail (NT), the residents of the jurisdictional police district of KP Agrahara were shocked to find an unidentified body of a man near the 5th cross Agrahara in the wee hours of Sunday.

Verifying the CCTV footage of the spot, the police initially had said that the murder was carried out by six people, including three women. Speaking to NT on Tuesday, the police said that the deceased was identified as Manjunath Balappa Jamkhandi, 32, a resident of Badami. The police said that the deceased had come to Bengaluru ten days ago, after shutting down his hotel business in Badami.

While staying at a lodge near Gandhi Nagar, he visited his fellow villagers in KP Agrahara on December 3. On the way, Manjunath met his friend at a medical store and requested him to put his mobile phone on charge until he returned after meeting his friends. However, when he did not return, the owner closed the medical store around 12:30 am.

Meanwhile, as Manjunath met his villagers, they picked a fight with him and allegedly attacked him. As Manjunath fell down, the accused, including women, started striking him down with rods and stones. The horrifying act of the group smashing Manjunath’s head was caught on CCTV, the video of which later went viral.

The men and women were seen taking turns aiming and throwing heavy stones on Manjunath’s head. The police said that the accused people had struck Manjunath on his face more than 20 times so that his identity could not be ascertained. As a few local residents heard the screams and came out from their houses, the group started fleeing from the spot.

The residents then alerted the police, who shifted the body to Victoria Hospital. It’s becoming difficult to trust people: House owner Sidda Gangamma, the elderly landlord of the house which was rented by the accused was horrified when she learnt of the incident.

“I had no idea that these people were involved in the crime. They approached me and requested that I rent out my house for a few days. They had said that they were from Badami and claimed to be in poor financial condition. It is becoming difficult to trust people,” she said.

Sidda Gangamma’s husband is bed-ridden suffering from health issues due to which she had asked the accused persons to make the rental agreement. “I had taken pity on them, especially when I saw the women, but they all turned out to be killers,” she added.