Kengeri railway track and 5 murders: The chilling saga of Bengaluru gang
- The CCB police have arrested seven for five murders
- Their modus operandi was strangulate and dispose of the body on Kengeri railway track to pass it off as accident
- One murder that began for love in 2001 led them on a killing spree for 16 years
FollowA gang of killers who were roaming free on the City streets for nearly 13 years were finally nabbed by the City police after their rant about their crimes in a Kengeri bar let the slip out. The gang would strangulate and dispose off the bodies on Kengeri railway track to make it appear as train accidents to erase any clue during the post mortem.
The CCB sleuths have arrested Shekhar (33), Venkatesh (40), Kumar alias Jirale (37) Ganesha (310, N Narendra Kumar (34), RAju alias Basavaraju (34) and Nagendra (25).
In fact, it all began for love in 2001 and they went on a killing spree.
Accused Venkatesh was in love with a woman who married Yellappa as per her parents' wish. However, Yellappa would suspect her fidelity and toruture her. Venkatesh who learned about it decided to eliminate Yellappa with his friends. The gang called Yellappa for a drink and strangulated him to death with a rope and placed the body on the railway track. The body was so mutilated that the police passed it off as accident. They could not even identify the body.
Although Venkatesh married his girlfriend after killing Yellappa, he was not happy. For, she was in love with one Ramesh and this infuriated Venkatesh. Despite admonishing his wife to mend her ways, she continued her affair with Ramesh. Venkatesh decided to murder Ramesh - again in the same way - in 2002. Yet, again the police registered the case as 'unnatural death', reports Kannada Prabha.
In their third murder, Shekhar's relative Sampath Kumar had told him that his wife was having an illicit affair with one Marimuthu's son. Shekhar had warned Manimuthu to keep his son under control. At this, Marimuthu allegedly told him off saying "Worry, if he sleeps with your wife." Angered, Shekhar along with the gang again strangulated Marimuthu and disposed the body near Kengeri in 2003. In fact, Shekhar and Kumar were arrested in connection with the murder but surprisingly, they didn't reveal the police about their involvement in earlier murders, reports Prajavani.
They didn't stop here. In 2013, they were hired to kill a businessman Vasu at the behest of his wife Veena for Rs 5 lakh.
Interestingly, Vasu had introduced his wife his friend Raghavendra at a Kengeri fair. Slowly, Veena began spending time with Raghavendra. She decided to kill her husband to live with Raghavendra. She shared her plan with him, who readily agreed. On the ill-fated day, Veena mixed sleeping pills in dinner and served it to her husband, Vasu. After he fell asleep, Raghvandra along with the rest of the gang, strangulated Vasu to make it appear as he died of heart attack. In fact, till the case was cracked, Vasu's parents believed their daughter-in-law who told them that Vasu had indeed died of heart attack. She had even allegedly hired a quack to obtain the medical certificate to prove her death. She even took care to cremate the body instead of burying.
Reports suggested that Shekhar had laid a condition to Raghavendra - to help kill Vasu - that Veena should sleep with them too. Raghavendra had allegedly agreed to it. But things went worse, when Veena decided to live with Shekhar. Raghavendra and Shekhar frequently quarrelled over it and both of them had attacked each other with weapons. In a fit of rage, in 2013, Raghavendra revealed everything to the police and the police had arrested all including Veena.
According to the police, the gang which had eliminated Ramesh in the second murder (in 2002) had killed his brother Suresh too in 2014. Suresh who had learned that Shekhar and gang had killed his brother, he wanted to avenge his brother's death. He took the help of Shekhar's friends to eliminate him. But they revealed the ploy to Shekhar.
The "turncoats" went again to Suresh and pretended to help him. As per the plan, they called Shekhar near Kengeri railway station where Suresh was waiting. But Shekhar with his rest of the gang hacked Suresh to death. And had disposed it on the railway track.
The whole crime saga came out when the murderers (in Vasu case) who were on bail had met at a bar in Kengeri on June 6. Under the influence of alcohol, the gang was allegedly boasting about their crime. A bar tender who heard their conversation alerted the police and now they are behind bars.
