Bengaluru: Couple kills paan masala supplier over affair & loan; wife silent accomplice

BENGALURU: A garment employee allegedly locked his family friend and paan masala supplier for three days and strangled him to death before dumping the body in a drain near Belthur last week. He was angry with the 48-year-old man who allegedly had an affair with his wife. Along with the couple, the murdered man’s wife, who was a witness to the crime, was arrested by Kadugodi police.
A decomposed body was found in a drain near Belthur on July 5. Police identified the body as that of Omnath Singh, who stayed at Rajendra’s building in Belathur near Ayyappa Swamy temple and was from Bihar, two days later. He supplied pan masala to small shops in Belthur area.
The accused are Vishal Prajapati, 24, a garment employee and his wife Rubi Prajapati, 23, and Singh’s wife Gunjadevi, 35. Singh’s family and the accused couple were staying in two houses in the same building since early June. The two families were earlier living in Gujarat and knew each other well.
Police said the suspects had stuffed Singh’s body into a plastic sack and disposed it of in the drain. The incident came to light after a passerby noticed the body. Kadugodi police registered a case of murder and destruction of evidence against unknown persons.
Deputy commissioner of police (Whitefield division) S Girish formed multiple teams headed by assistant commissioner of police Shantamallappa and inspector Manjunath to crack the case. Police learnt the three suspects had disappeared from their residences a few days before the incident came to light. Based on this information, police tracked the killers to Mangaluru and arrested them.
The Prajapati couple told police Singh had an affair with Rubi and later started harassing her over the issue. Vishal had given some money to Singh. But Singh didn’t return it even after Vishal demanded. Vishal became angrier when he learnt about his wife’s alleged affair with Singh. Vishal locked up Singh in his residence for three days prior to the murder and assaulted him with a belt. The third day, on May 3, he along with Ruby, allegedly strangled Singh to death.
“Vishal packed the body in a sack and carried it to the drain 150 metres away from his house,” said DCP Girish.
Singh’s wife was witness to the assault and murder but she did not inform police or anyone about it. She joined the accused and went to Mangaluru, where Vishal had worked earlier. Police said they are yet to find out why Singh’s wife preferred to go with her husband’s killers.