HUBBALLI: A 20-year-old girl was allegedly murdered by a 22-year-old youth at Veerapur Oni near Dajibanpet here on Wednesday morning. Vishwanath alias Girish Sawant, the accused, allegedly attacked Anjali Ambiger at her house, slit her throat with a knife after repeatedly stabbing her. He fled the spot immediately leaving her in a pool of blood.
Vishwanath had been pestering Anjal for many years to marry him But Anjali and her family members were against it. Two weeks ago, Vishwanath went to Anjali’s house and threatened to kill her the way Neha Hiremath was murdered. Neha was murdered by her former classmate Fayaz on her college campus in Hubballi on April 18. After this, Anjali’s family members approached Bendigeri police, but did not file a complaint.
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Hubballi-Dharwad police commissioner Renuka Sukumar suspended police inspector Chikkodi and woman head constable Rekha Havaraddi of Bendigeri police station in the evening for not acting on the oral complaint by Anjali’s family members then.
Senior police officials said two teams have been formed to nab Vishwanath. The police have the CCTV footage of Vishwanath entering the city central railway station. It is not clear whether he boarded a train or escaped from the railway station.
The accused is said to be involved in some cases reported in Dharwad and Uttara Kannada districts.
“Anjali was an employee of a local catering company. The accused used to pester her to marry him. He forced her many times to go with him to Mysuru. The accused also forced her to go with him on Wednesday morning. When she refused, he killed her,” a police officer said.
Meanwhile, people of the locality staged a protest demanding that the accused be arrested immediately. Local corporator Niranjan Hiremath, father of Neha, met Anjali’s family members at KIMS Hospital and gave them a compensation cheque for Rs 1 lakh. Local BJP MLA Mahesh Tenginkai, who consoled Anjali’s family members, demanded that the police arrest the accused at the earliest.
Meanwhile, Union minister Pralhad Joshi attributed the increasing number of murder cases in Hubballi to the lethargic attitude of the state government.