The cops arrested 5 people who allegedly tortured and killed 27-year-old Sharath Kumar as he did not pay back the money he took from people.
Five arrested for Sharath's Murder
It was a case with a number of twists and turns, from fraud in the name of vehicle loans to a pro-Karnataka organisation being roped in to recover the money.
In the end, it resulted in murder, and when the police solved the case, Bengaluru’s Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central Division) R Srinivas Gowda was forced to caution recovery agents.
Loan sharks or recovery agents should never take the law into their hands when pursuing borrowers, he cautioned them through South First.
All they can do is serve notices according to the guidelines of the banks, he added.
If the defaulting is clear-cut, bank officials could file a civil suit to recover the money legally, added Gowda.
And it all came after Head Constable Nandeesh KR, attached to the Cubbon Park Police Station, and the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Cubbon Park Subdivision) Rajendra DS solved a nine-month-old murder case.
A total of five people, including a father-son duo attached to a pro-Karnataka organisation, have been arrested in connection with the case.
It started off as a case of a person gone missing that turned into an abduction and then murder after torture.
Deceased Sharath Kumar (27)
The individual was a 27-year-old named Sharath Kumar, a resident of Konanakunte. A case was registered in this regard in March this year.
According to the police, Kumar had collected around ₹20 lakh from several people from Yelahanka and Chikkaballapura.
In return, he promised them vehicle loans under governmental schemes and further loan subsidies.
However, when there was no sign of vehicles or loans, the aggrieved people approached one Venkatachalapathy, who heads a pro-Karnataka organisation.
The police said the aggrieved people requested him to recover the money.
Venkatachalapthy asked his son Sharath AV to handle the matter.
Accompanied by his associates Manjunath, Dhanush, and Sanketh, Sharath allegedly abducted Sharath Kumar from Banashankari and took him to his father’s farmhouse in Chikkaballapura.
They then stripped him, tied him up and started thrashing him. They even hung him as they continued to torture him, and recorded their actions on their phones.
During the torture, Sharath succumbed to injuries and the accused carried his body in a gunny bag and dumped it in a forested area in Charmadi Ghat in Chikkamagaluru.
The accused also used Sharath’s phone to inform his parents that he was going to other states to earn some money, and that they need not look for him or try to contact him.
“Since Kumar himself had three cases against him at a local police station and his parents knew that he had been conning people, they did not bother to look for him or even file a missing complaint with the police,” a senior police officer said.
However, Head Constable Nandeesh recently received a tip-off from his informer in Chikkaballapur that a 27-year-old man was tortured and killed at a farmhouse there.
Meanwhile, ACP Rajendra DS received a letter and a few video clips.
Based on the evidence, they picked up Venkatachalapathy’s son Sharath and interrogated him.
Sharath confessed to the murder. However, Kumar’s body or remains have not yet been recovered.
Special teams were sent to arrest the other three accused — other than Venkatachalapathy and Sharath — who had gone underground in Kerala and Chikkaballapura.
Meanwhile, the police also booked the five accused for not just the torture and murder but also for destroying evidence.
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