BENGALURU: Three persons who had taken a contract from a financier to murder a petty shop owner fell into the police dragnet before they could execute their plan. The conspiracy came to light on Friday evening when
Hulimavu cops were searching for a multi-utility vehicle (MUV), which had incidentally been stolen by the trio for the purpose.
The arrested men are
Mani alias
Konga, 30, of Kempanayakanahalli,
Roopesh M, 33, of Jambusavari Dinne and Selvaraju K, 33, of Mylasandra near Begur. The financier,
Lakshman V, 38, of
Darshan Finance in
Gutepalya near Siddapura, south Bengaluru, is also behind bars.
The probe began after Peddanna V from CK Palya lodged a police complaint saying he had been robbed of his vehicle by a three-member gang while returning home around 11pm after dropping a few employees of a technology firm on Wednesday night. Peddanna said his MUV was intercepted by the gang near the bushes in Hommadevanahalli village. The gang members had assaulted him and driven away with his MUV. The investigating team identified the car while it was being driven on NICE Road near Thalaghattapura and arrested Mani along with his associates.
Nabbed before they could kill man
During interrogation, the three men said they were moving around with weapons in the stolen vehicle as they had planned to eliminate Shivakumar, a beeda stall owner at Arakere, at the behest of financier Lakshman.
A police officer said: “Lakshman suspected Kumar of having an affair with his wife, who started living separately. Lakshman blamed Kumar for ruining his marital life decided to kill him.” Lakshman is said to have thrown four booze parties to Mani and his associates while discussing his intention to get Kumar murdered. Mani reportedly agreed to execute the job for Rs 3 lakh and received Rs 7,000 as advance. Since they needed a vehicle to kidnap and kill Kumar, they chose to rob an MUV and targeted Peddanna. But they were caught before they could murder him.
Police said Mani was involved in four cases, including a murder, and Roopesh was named in a dacoity case. The four accused were produced before the court on Friday and remanded in judicial custody.
Lakshman Mani and Roopesh M
