A day after the city was shocked by the murder of an elderly couple in JP Nagar, police on Saturday night arrested three persons in connection with the case.
The victims, Venkateshaiah (75), a retired clerk with the Education Department, and his homemaker wife Swarnamba (68), hailed from Anekal and were staying in their J P Nagar house for the past 34 years. They did not have children.
The main accused has been identified as Guru Prasad, 25, of Kadirenahalli. The other two are Salman, 21, of Yarab Nagar, and Nitesh Kumar, 22, of Banashankari.
The police have recovered about 300 grams of gold ornaments and cash from them. Prasad is said to have pledged the valuables at a pawn broker’s in Banashankari and purchased a secondhand car.
Based on information given by one of the two maids who was working in the couple’s house, a special team nabbed the accused late on Saturday night, police officials said.
According to sources, Prasad was working as a plumber in the house of Prabhakar, a contractor and the victims’ neighbour.
Soon, Prasad got acquainted with Venkateshaiah. Sources said Venkateshaiah wanted to get the water sump in his house repaired and gave an advance of Rs 3,000 to Prasad for the job.
Despite taking an advance, Prasad avoided Venkateshaiah for nearly a month. It is said that Prabhakar and another neighbour, Srinivasa Murthy, finally managed to get Prasad to start the repair work on the water sump.
Police said on August 6 (three days before the murder), Prasad brought two other workers with him to ‘study’ the victims’ house.
Putting their plan into action, Prasad first attempted to snatch Swaranamba’s jewellery. When she resisted, he smothered her.
Venkateshaiah, who was asleep in another room, woke up on hearing the commotion and came out. He was smothered to death too.
Then the accused gathered the valuables in a hurry and left the place, police added.