Lonely elderly woman’s murder: Couple residing in rented house arrested

Udupi: In the backdrop of the murder of a lonely elderly woman Ratnavati Shetty (80), resident of Subrahmanya Nagar located within the city limits, the police have successfully arrested the accused couple in Goa.

The accused are identified as Ambanna alias Ambareesh alias Ambanna Basappa Jadar alias Shiva (31) from Naragunda in Dharwad and his wife Rasheeda alias Khazi alias Jyoti (26).

They had come looking for rented house

There are four rooms located behind the victim’s house which were being given on rent. There were two individuals living in two separate rooms here and had returned back to their home town.

On July 1^st, the couple came seeking a rented house and Ratnavati gave them a room. The couple which had moved into the room on that day, gained access into the bedroom of Ratnavati at 3:30am in the night, murdered her with a knife and escaped, inform police sources. The corpse of Ratnavati was found on the night of July 5^th in a putrefied state.

Murder for gold ornaments

The accused have accepted that they spent money extravagantly and had committed the crime for the gold and money. They had made off with gold ornaments belonging to the victim worth more than Rs 2 lakh and the valuables are yet to be recovered.

The arrested couple was presented in the court on Wednesday and have been remanded for police custody.

The rented house was fixed on seeing the gold!

The accused had a long chat with the victim before finalizing on the rented room. During the chat they noticed the gold ornaments worn by Ratnavati and presumed there was more gold within the house and with this sketch, they agreed for the rented house.

The arrest

Udupi police confirmed that the accused couple was staying in Goa within the jurisdiction of the Old Goa police station limits. They immediately informed the police there and apprehended the couple. Then a special police team left from Udupi to Goa to get the accused.

The operation was conducted with guidance from SP Nisha James and ASP Kumarachandra under the leadership of CI Manjunath. Malpe Inspector Madhu, Udupi ASI Gopalakrishna and DCBI staff were part of the operation.

Criminal background of the accused

Ambareesh has several cases booked against him on various charges including mobile theft in Hubballi, scooter theft in Bijapur, necklace snatching in Badami and robbery at a house at Kavoor in Mangaluru. He had married Rasheed 8 years back.