IT officer's son murdered: Friends kill Sharath for money, travel entire day with body in car
- The master mind behind the crime is one H P Vishal (21) a childhood friend of Sharath’s sister.
- Vishal and others made Sharath get into a Swift car and got him to drink alcohol.
- Got him to record a video message demanding Rs 50 lakh and sent it to Sharath’s father Niranjana Kumar.
- As soon as they came to know that Niranjan had lodged a police complaint they strangled him with a wire in the car.
- Vishal then went to Sharath’s house inquiring about him, showing sympathy and acting innocent.
- The police tracked Vishal's phone and found his friends were moving around in the Narasimhayya tank area at midnight.
FollowSharath, son of IT officer Niranjan Kumar, was kidnapped and killed by his own friends. The decomposed body was recovered from a pit after 10 days. CCB police have arrested 4 and are on the lookout for another, reported Kannada Prabha.
The master mind behind the crime is one H P Vishal (21) a childhood friend of Sharath’s sister. The others are Vinayprasad alias Vikky (24) of Tavarekere, Karan Pai (22), Vinod Kumar (24). Another accused Shanthakumar is absconding and police are looking for him said police commissioner T Sunil Kumar.
Vishal was working as RTO agent. His father used to be a driver now works as coolie. Sharath’s sister was Vishal’s classmate. He used to visit them often and was known to the family. All the accused were friends and wanted to earn quick money. It was Vishal who first said that Sharath is an Income Tax officer’s son and by kidnapping him and demanding a ransom of Rs 50 lakh they could get rich.
He was confident the father would give money. Sharath was very fond of imported high end motor bikes and Vishal knew this. Vishal told Sharath that his friend had the Benali, a highend bike and they were going for a ride on September12. Sharath said he too would come. Sharath had just then bought an Enfield Bike and wanted to show off. He told his family he was going to show the bike to his friends and left on September 12 evening.
Vishal and others made him get into a Swift car and got him to drink alcohol. They told him he was kidnapped and got him to record a video message demanding Rs 50 lakh and sent it to Sharath’s father Niranjana Kumar. The very same day Niranjan had lodged a police complaint.
The accused then made one more video stating the kidnappers were very dangerous, not to go to police and they may harm his sister also. As soon as they came to know that Niranjan had lodged a police complaint they strangled him with a wire in the car. Later they tied stones and salt bags to the body with ropes and wires and drowned it.
Vishal then went to Sharath’s house inquiring about him, showing sympathy and acting innocent. Police had taken him for questioning 4 times and he was able to act innocent and convince the police.
The police checked Vishal’s mobile locations and it was found that he was moving around Narasimhayya tank near Harohalli late night. They had gone to the tank to check if the body had come up. The body had come up once and they again tied stones and salt bags and drowned it again. After 2 days the body had come up again. Then they realised that if the body is left floating they would be caught by the police, hence they removed the decomposed body, put it in the car dikky and drove around find a place to dump it. Finally they buried the body in the quarry near Ramohalli.
The needle of suspicion was pointing to Vishal from the beginning. When the police questioned him he had stated that Sharath had sent a Whatsapp message on September 12 evening that he would meet him at Shirke Apartment and after that he had no contact with him. He had even given the names of Sharath’s friends acting cooperating with police. The police suspected him and called him 4 times to question and all the time he acted innocent.
After kidnapping Sharath, Vishal had taken Sharath’s bike and returned to his home. He had called Sharath’s sister pretending to inquire about him. She innocently revealed to him that a Whatsapp video was sent to father and he had gone to lodge a police complaint. Immediately he ordered his friends to kill Sharath. When the 3 killed Sharath Vishal was not at the spot. He had parked Sharath’s bike in front of a relative’s house in Rajarajeshwari Nagara.
The police were checking phone numbers on Sharath’s mobile and found Vishal’s number also. His location showed it was at his home. Vishal was contacting his friends through another phone. The police tracked that and found his friends were moving around in the Narasimhayya tank area at midnight.
The gang had decided to kill Sharath even if money was paid. They had purchased knife, rope and tape even before kidnapping him, said the police. The killers had seen the Kannada film Mugulnage in the morning, evening they kidnapped Sharath. Vinay Prasad and Shanthakumar were working as drivers and Vinod and Kiran were working for a factory Mother Son at Bidadi.
The delay in cracking the case was because there is no inspector at Jnanabharathi police station. After the previous inspector Krishna was transferred nobody has been appointed. The West Division DCP M N Anucheth is in SIT working on Gauri Lankesh killing. Since there is no inspector or DCP available the case was handed over to CCB and hence it took 10 days to crack it.
