Bengaluru: A 30-year-old software engineer who went missing from Attibele was found murdered and buried inside a house of his cousins in Andhra Pradesh.
The Attibele police based on a missing case tracked down the accused and arrested them from their hometown on Monday.
The deceased has been identified as Srinath, a native of Kuppam in Andhra Pradesh and a resident of Nerluru near Attibele. Srinath worked in a tech company and lived with his wife and four year old daughter, the police said.
The police have arrested Prabhakar, a plumber and Srinath’s paternal uncle’s son — and his friend Jagadish, a distant relative for the murder.
Probe revealed that , Prabhakar had borrowed ₹40 lakh from Srinath promising to invest the money and get him high returns but failed to even return the principle amount. When Srinath recently demanded his money back, Prabhakar allegedly hatched a plan to eliminate him.
As per the plan Prabhakar called Srinath to Kuppam, saying he would return the money. Srinath informed his wife that he was going to get back his money and left for Prabhakar’s house in Kuppam in Andhra Pradesh.
Soon after reaching the house, Srinath once again asked Prabhakar to return the money. Enraged, Prabhakar allegedly picked up a hammer lying nearby and struck Srinath on the head, killing him on the spot, the police said.
With the help of his friend Jagadish, Prabhakar dug a pit inside the same house, buried the body, and covered it up. He then pretended ignorance when Srinath’s wife asked about her husband’s whereabouts.
When Srinath did not return home even after two days, worried, the wife filed a missing person complaint at the Attibele Police Station. Based on her complaint, the police picked up the duo for questioning and during interrogation, Prabhakar and Jagadish gave contradictory statements, raising suspicion.
Upon repeated questioning by the Attibele police, the duo confessed to the murder and revealed that the body was buried inside the house in Kuppam.
A team of Attibele police, along with the Kuppam Tahsildar, visited the spot and exhumed the buried body. The accused have been booked for murder and have been arrested. Further investigation is underway.
