HUBBALLI: A 30-year-old man was found dead on the banks of a lake in Hubballi on Saturday night.
The deceased has been identified as Akash Matapati, son of Shekarayya Matapati, who is the president of auto rickshaw unions in North Karnataka.
The family has alleged that Akash has been murdered by his friends and relatives from his wife’s side.
Akash was married to Kavya, who is also from Hubballi, four years ago and the couple have a two-year-old daughter.
The family of the deceased have lodged a police complaint against 12 persons including Kavya and her parents.
The police have detained eight persons in connection with the case.
The police said that there were no serious injuries found on the body of Akash except for a small wound on the forehead. The postmortem report is awaited. The police said that the deceased had partied along with this friends near a lake in Lohia Nagar on Gouk Road in Hubballi.
Father of Akash, Shekarayya said that the family of Akash’s wife is responsible for the death of his son.
“I come from a 'social work background' and I own an auto for my livelihood. My son was having issues with his wife and her brother Bharat Nayak as her family was taking loans from several people. When they were unable to repay the loan they fled to Mysore and then later to Murdeshwar. The family kept forcing my son to get money from his parents and we were fed up with it. Last month we called our son back to our house and since then her family members were angry with him,” he explained.
Six months ago, the family members of Kavya had attacked Akash over a petty matter. Two of the family members were picked up by the Old Hubballi police but no case was registered.
“Me and my wife requested the police to drop charges and had advised them to keep away from my son. We have a goods van and we were asking our son to ride it. But his affection towards his wife kept him away from the house. After the baby was born, Kavya left our house and never returned. We have submitted the mobile phone of Akash to the police and we hope to get some clues on what could have happened to him,” he said.
Hubballi Dharwad police commissioner Renuka Sukumar said that the police have taken the complaint from the family and are investigating. “The team is waiting for the postmortem report. Meanwhile, an inquiry of those secured is underway. Once the postmortem report is out next action will be taken,” she said.