KASARGOD: Kumara Prasad, a native of Badiadka, Kasargod, missing in Venezuela for more than one week was found murdered along with his colleague, said his family.
Prasad (41), son of prominent ethnobotanist the late Pallathadka Keshava Bhat, was running an ayurveda hospital and medicine plant at Chara Chakra in Cumaná, the capital of Venezuela's Sucre state.
Prasad and his staff Erica Maria Aras Lathik were found buried near their hospital Saturday evening, said Venkitakrishna Bhat, cook of the hospital and native of Neerchal, here. A week ago, Bhat had filed a missing complaint with Cumaná police. The bodies had bullet injuries and the faces were wrapped with polythene covers, he said over phone.
The funeral of Prasad would be held at Cumaná on Monday, said his sister Suma Prasad, an ayurveda doctor practising in the US.
Prasad and his three sibblings, Suma Pawan Raj and Anasuya Prasad, were born and brought up in Cumaná. Anasuya is an ayurveda doctor practising in Mangalore and Pawan Raj has businesses in Manipal.
Quoting investigating officers, Venkitakrishna Bhat said police were suspecting business rivalry to be the motive for the murder.
The hospital and medicine making unit were set up by Keshava Bhat, and after his death in 2010, Prasad took over it, said the longtime cook.