CHITRADURGA: A woman and her husband allegedly strangled her HIV-positive brother to death as they were ashamed that his infection would stigmatise their family. In a strange unspooling of incidents, the deceased Mallikarjun (23), who hailed from Dhummi village in Holalkere taluk of Chitradurga district, was allegedly strangled to death by his sister Nisha and brother-in-law Manjunath on Sunday.
On July 23, Mallikarjun was heading to his village in a car along with his friends when they met with an accident near Aymangala of Hiriyur taluk. Mallikarjun suffered a fracture in his leg and was initially treated at Chitradurga.
He was later shifted to a private hospital in Davanagere, where a routine blood test was conducted. But it revealed that Mallikarjun was HIV-positive. Hospital authorities advised him to get treated at the Kasturba Medical College and Hospital in Manipal.
He was put in an ambulance and as he was being ferried, Nisha and Manjunath, who were accompanying him, allegedly strangled him to death.
Posing it as a death due to his injuries, Nisha and Manjunath shifted Mallikarjun’s body to Dhummi for cremation. But the villagers noticed a telltale mark on his neck and raised suspicion. Mallikarjun’s father Nagaraj filed a complaint with the Holalkere police, who unearthed grisly details of the murder. Nisha has been arrested.