KASARAGOD: A 33-year-old restaurant worker, found dead on the National Highway on Saturday, could have been murdered, said Manjeshwar police, citing the post-mortem report.
Hanumanthaya - a resident of Devipura in Thalapady village of Dakshina Kannada district - was found dead at Kunjathur around 4 am on Saturday. The body was found by a patrolling team of Manjeshwar police.
His scooter was also found near the body, but the vehicle did not bear any evidence of an accident. Police initially thought it to be a case of hit-and-run and shifted the body to the Kannur Government Medical College Hospital for postmortem.
The report was revealing. Hanumanthaya was strangled and his neck had impressions of two fingers, said sub-inspector of Manjeshwar station. The post-mortem report also said that he died around 1 am.
However, Manjeshwar police were in for surprise when they tracked down his wife in Thalapady and questioned her. "She told us that Hanumanthaya left home as usual for work around 4 am," said the sub-inspector.
That did not sit well with the fact that the police found the body at 4 am at Kunjathurpadav in Kerala. To be sure, the distance between Devipura in Karnataka and Kunjathurpadav in Kerala is under 2 km.
Hanumanthaya worked in a restaurant in Mangaluru and had no reason to drive towards Kasaragod, said Kasaragod deputy superintendent of police Balakrishnan Nair. "He is a native of Gadag and lived with his wife at her place at Thalappady," he said.
He said the wife is a suspect in the case because of her statement that is in conflict with the facts. "Manjeshwar police are now questioning her," Nair said. Manjeshwar police said they would be investigating the case because the body was found in their jurisdiction.
They have sought the help of Cyber police to chalk out the route Hanumanthaya using signals from his mobile phone. "But during the course of the investigation, if we find out that he was killed in Karnataka and the body dumped in Kerala, the case will be transferred to Karnataka police," said an officer of Manjeshwar police.