HAVERI: A special police team has cracked the murder of a 17-year-old college girl whose body was found on Thursday under the Varada river bridge on NH4 with the arrest of her cousin on Saturday. The
arrested is Manjunathagouda alias Shashi Patil (24) of Mannur village in Savanur taluk.
Addressing the media, Superintendent of Police K Parashuram said the accused was arrested from his residence and that he killed the girl after she resisted his advances. On Monday, the victim — a PU II student — left for her college in Haveri in a bus.
Meanwhile, Manjunathagouda called her while she was in the bus and asked her to get down at Bankapur bus stand saying that he too was going to Haveri in his car. After picking her up, he drove to Basaveshawar Nagar to his sister’s house. Upon questioning, he said that his brother would join them there.
As Manjunathagouda’s sister was not in town, they entered the house using a spare key. After some time, when the girl started insisting that she be dropped to college as she was getting late, Manjunathagouda tried to molest her. When she resisted, he strangled her using her veil and killed her by hitting her head with a stick.
The accused, after killing her, went to the APMC yard and got a gunny bag and bundled her into it.
Her brought the body from the first floor of his residence and dumped it into his car boot.
The house owner, who saw this, did not suspect anything wrong.
After dumping her body on the banks of the Varada, the accused returned home and cleaned up the crime scene and washed off the blood stains. He even joined the girl’s parents and other relatives in search of her.
The accused was in constant touch with the girl’s father.
He was normal and did not show any sign of anxiety, the SP said.
On August 8, the girl’s father filed a missing person’s complaint.
A panicky Manjunathagouda then went to the spot where he had dumped the girl’s body and tried to burn it.
The body, however, was not fully burnt and on Thursday, some villagers of Tavarumellihalli, informed the police after foul smell started emanating from the spot.
Police have collected footage from CCTV cameras showing the girl and the accused in the car.
They have also collected circumstantial evidence to make the case stronger.
A special police team led by Additional SP G A Jagadeesh, DSP L Kumarappa, DySP (DCRB) N V Baramani and CPIs Basu Chavan, Santosh Pawar and M M Goudappagoudar solved the case within 48 hours of finding the body.