BENGALURU: In a strange twist to the murder of a landlord who was killed while standing in front of his apartment on February 13, the Marathahalli police have arrested the victim’s son and two contract killers.
The police said that the 70-year-old N Narayanaswamy, a resident of Indraprastha Apartment in Kaverappa Layout, was murdered as he was trying to register a property in the name of his son’s second wife and her daughter. Angry with this, the son gave a supari of Rs 1 crore each and one flat each to the two accused to eliminate his father. As an advance payment, he had given Rs 1 lakh in cash to them.
The two accused murdered Narayanswamy, who owned 28 flats, on February 13 while he was standing outside his apartment. The son had earlier been arrested in 2013 for murdering his first wife. After coming out of jail, he married another woman and has a daughter with her. The second wife decided to divorce him after coming to know about his relationship with another woman. Narayanaswamy wanted his daughter-in-law and granddaughter to have a source of income and wanted to transfer some property in their names.
He was heading to the sub-registrar’s office when he was murdered.
The accused have been identified as N Manikanta alias Mani, 30 -- son of Narayanaswamy, T Adarsh alias Benkki (26) of AG Halli in Hosakote and NM Shivakumar alias Naduvathi (24) of Kasaba in Hoskote.
Mani had also tried to kill his second wife Archana last year after they had an argument over his illicit relationship. The Marathahalli police had registered an attempt-to-murder case and arrested him.
During his term in jail, Mani came in contact with Adarsh and Shivakumar, who had been arrested in robbery and other cases. “After the murder attempt on her, Archana decided to divorce Mani. Narayanaswamy tried to stop her, but failed. That was when he decided to give her some property without Mani’s knowledge. When Mani came to know about it, he warned his father against it. When Narayanaswamy did not listen, he gave the supari to get his father killed,” said an officer.