BENGALURU: In one of the most horrific crimes in the State in the recent past, the Mandya police arrested an alleged serial killer; a man (A1) and his partner (A2) from Dobbaspete on August 3 for alleged involvement in murders of three women, from Hebbagodi in Bengaluru, Hosadurga in Chitradurga and Chamrajanagar town in a span of a month.
On June 7, the police had found the torsos of two women - one in Baby canal in Pandavpura police station limits and the second in CDS canal in Arekere PS limits - which set them off on a hunt for the identity of the victims and the accused. The upper body parts of the two victims and the body of the first victim is yet to be recovered, said sources.
“After recovering the torsos on June 7, the Mandya police had formed nine teams, circulated over 10,000 bills seeking information on the victims in Mandya district and Kerala and used a canine squad but there were no leads,” said Superintendent of Police, Mandya N Yathish.
Killer had also planned to murder partner
“The police then started sieving through 1,200 missing complaints along with other technical data like CCTV footage and tower dump analysis at suspected places. The first lead came from a missing complaint dated July 7 of a 32-year-old woman from Chamrajanagar. The missing complaint mentioned the date as June 5 though she had gone missing on June 3.
She was in touch with a woman from Pandavpurataluka in Mandya, currently living in Bengaluru. The second lead came from another missing complaint dated May 2, of a woman in Hebbagodi police station limits in Anekal subdivision, Bengaluru. The complaint filed by the husband of the victim had mentioned the name of a man she was in touch with,” said the SP.
Based on technical evidence during investigation, the police zeroed in on the accused and his partner and arrested them from Dobbaspete, the officer added. According to sources, the investigation so far has revealed that A1 had reportedly called the woman from Hebbagodi - his first victim - on May 1 to his house in Andrahalli in Bengaluru West on the pretext of getting her a job. Upon reaching his house the accused had meals with her and called it a day.
At night A1 allegedly strangled her to death, robbed her of her jewellery and sold them for Rs 90,000. He took the body on his two wheeler to Chitradurga and dumped it on the side of the highway near the lake bund. The police are yet to recover the body of the victim. A1 allegedly claimed the second victim’s life on May 30 after he called her from Chitradurga to his then place of residence in Metagahalli in Mysuru on the pretext of a job. He allegedly strangled her and cut her body with a knife.
He then stuffed the body parts in two bags and covered them with flowers and leafy vegetables to conceal detection. He then carted the bags, threw one of them in Cauvery river and the other in the CDS canal, said sources. He sold the victim’s jewellery for Rs 25,000, they added. “A1 allegedly killed his third victim - a woman from Chamrajanagar, who was known to his partner (A2) on June 3 after he called her to Mysuru. He cut her body into two halves and dumped them in two bags; one each in a Katteri canal near KRS and the other in Baby canal. He reportedly sold her jewellery for Rs 90,000,” said sources.
Giving chilling details about his next victim, sources said that on the day of his arrest, on August 3, A1 had planned to kill A2 - his partner - to erase evidence of his crime since she is a witness to the three murders. “He had four other people including three women on his hit-list,” they added.
The interrogation of A1 has reportedly revealed that he had identified his victims because he suspected that they had an “immoral” influence on his partner and were prodding her to get into illicit trade. A1 is a school dropout and had worked in fabrication units in Peenya before moving to Bommasandra, Mysuru and later to Dobbaspete. In each of these cases, after allegedly strangling his victims to death, he sold their jewellery and went for a vacation with his partner.