Woman scribe among four nabbed for school headmaster's murder

Raichur: The Kunigal police have arrested four persons, including a woman journalist in connection with the murder of a headmaster of a Raichur private school.

The arrested have been identified as Basanagouda H,37, a native of Raichur; Tejeshwari S, 28, a crime reporter based out of Bengaluru’s Rajajinagar; Prakash Kumar, 37, a resident of Bengaluru and Ashoka, 38, from Kamakshipalya here.

The accused had reportedly strangulated the victim Sudheendra Mutalik, 45, a headmaster of a school in Lingasugur in a moving car and threw his body off Huliyurudurga Road here. 

According to media reports Sudheendra became acquainted with Basanagouda through IPL betting. It is said that he had availed several loans due to his betting habit and this led to fights between him and his wife, Ambika. A TOI report mentions that Ambika developed an affair with Basanagouda around the same time which led to the couple’s divorce. While Basanagouda was eager to marry Ambika, her parents opposed their relationship and believed that Sudheendra and Ambika may resolve their differences soon. Basanagouda thus decided to eliminate Sudheendra and turned to Tejeshwari and Prakash Kumar for help in executing the murder.

The trio had initially planned to make his death appear like an accident but since that failed Prakash asked Sudhhendra out for dinner. It was in the car that they strangled him to death and later disposed of his body. While Tejeshwari, Basanagouda and Prakash were directly involved, Ashoka has been arrested for being an accomplice, as he was driving the car in which the trio strangled the headmaster.