BENGALURU: Two realtors who went missing on June 27 from the city are believed to have been murdered in Avverahalli in Kanakpura. The South Division police, who are probing the case, have arrested three suspected assailants based on CCTV footage, on Saturday. A dispute over land is said to be the motive for murder as one of the deceased had booked a site in RR Nagar a few months ago. The deceased are Prasad Babu (47), a resident of RR Nagar, and his friend A Balaji (44) of Girinagar. Both were into real estate business. The accused Tejus, Manikanth alias Mani and Anil Kumar, are residents of Yelachenahalli in JP Nagar.
Kin of the deceased had filed two separate missing complaints with Girinagar police and RR Nagar police on June 28.A senior police officer said, “Balaji’s wife Vaani G R had alleged in her complaint that Prasad, along with Balaji, had gone to meet businessman Tejus in JP Nagar when the duo were allegedly kidnapped by a gang. During investigation, police found that Prasad had booked a site belonging to Tejus’ mother in RR Nagar. Prasad had paid `50 lakh to Tejus and he had shown the site documents to his advocate for registration.
On June 25, Prasad came to know that the site was encroached upon on a rajakaluve (storm water drain) and he was advised against buying the property. Shocked over this, Prasad had asked Tejus to return his `50 lakh. Tejus had a fight with Prasad and Balaji, who had helped Prasad in the transaction.”On June 27, Tejus called Prasad and Balaji to JP Nagar, assuring them that he would return their money. Tejus, with the help of Mani and Anil, then allegedly took the duo to his farmhouse in Thalaghattapura and locked them up in a cement godown, police said. They were thrashed before being stabbed to death and later their bodies were buried near Kanakpura. Based on the details revealed by the accused, the police are trying to exhume the bodies.
“We are yet to come to a conclusion about the murder as the bodies have not been traced yet,” the officer said. Following the police complaint, based on clues, Tejus was picked up for questioning. As he claimed to be ‘influential’, police had let him off by issuing a notice to appear before them after a few days. A day after this, Tejus attempted suicide by consuming poison alleging police harassment in Prasad and Balaji’s case. Meanwhile, police had made sketches of Mani and Anil who had allegedly taken supari from Tejus to kill the realtors, a source said.
Before being kidnapped, Prasad had spoken twice to his wife Anitha. When he did not return home at night, Anitha tried to reach him on his phone but it was switched off. She reached out to his business partners but they were unable to help her. Anitha, along with her relatives, rushed to Tejus’ office and found Prasad’s scooter parked in front of it and then filed a case with the police.
After the families of the victims raised complaints, the police circulated sketches of the suspects which led to Mani being tracked down by Jayanagar police. When interrogated, he then named Anil and said that they had taken money to kill the realtors. They also revealed that Tejus hire an earth moving machine from Yelachenahalli and buried the bodies in an isolated place, police said. Three of the accused were taken into 10-day police custody for further investigation after producing them before the court.