B'luru: Anonymous tip helps police solve 9-month old kidnap-murder case; five held

Nearly nine months after a youth was abducted and murdered over monetary issue, Cubbon park police arrested five persons, including a member of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike.

The arrested are identified as H G Venkatachalapathi, Karnataka Rakshana Vedike state president, his son A V Sharath Kumar, and their associates Dhanush K and Sridhar R, both from Chikkaballapura, and M P Manjunath, of Yelahanka.

The victim H Sharat, 27, was abducted by the accused on March 23 and taken to a farmhouse in Gauribidanur where he was allegedly tortured for six days eventually causing his death. Later the accused stuffed his body in a sack and dumped it in the forested area at Charmadi Ghat.

Police recently got a tip-off about the kidnap and murder case. An anonymous letter alongwith videos of the assault was also sent to assistant commissioner of police (Cubbon Park), following which police swung into action.

Investigations revealed that the accused made Sharat call his parents after the kidnapping to say that he was going out of town for some work. In order to avoid tracing of his mobile location, the gang then threw his mobile in a lorry proceeding to a neighbouring state.

Reportedly, H Sharat used to dupe people by assuring them vehicles at discounted rates. He had been named as an accused in three cases at Konankunte police. The victims of the fraud had approached H G Venkatachalapathi with the hope of recovering their lost money. Venkatachalapathi put his son on this task after which they planned the abduction.