Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP/ANK)

Updated

Mangaluru, Apr 29: The police have finally succeeded in cracking the murder case of Karthik Raj, resident of Sudarshan Nagar in Pajeer near here, by arresting two brothers and a woman. 

The arrested siblings have been identified as Gautham, Gaurav and Kavyashree. 

Addressing a press conference here on Saturday April 29, city police commissioner, Chandra Sekhar, stated that a special investigation team, formed by him after the initial efforts did not bear fruit, under the leadership of city crime branch assistant commissioner of police, Valentine D'Souza, has succeeded in solving the case and arresting the accused.

Karthik Raj

He explained that the team, which carefully looked into all the aspects of the case, found that Karthik Raj's sister, Kavyashree, was working in Kanachur Hospital when she came in contact with Gautam, resident of Santosh Nagar in Kuthar. Continuing with the investigation, the team got information that Gautam and his younger brother, Gaurav, were involved with this murder. Both of them were taken into custody and interrogated. Kavyashree repeatedly had approached Gautam with a request to kill her elder brother, Karthik Raj. She also offered to pay five lac rupees for committing this murder.

Gautam is building a house at Kondana and was facing economic crisis. He thought he could put together the money he required by following Kavyashree's wishes. Along with his brother, Gaurav, he hit Karthik Raj's head with a rod on October 22, 2016 morning when the latter was on his jogging routine.

The police also recovered the iron rod used for the crime.

The police commissioner said that this was a blind case where there were no immediate theories or clues about the murder. So the police had to collect everything they could access from the spot for careful analysis from all possible angles. He said that the police moved carefully and made the arrests only after confirming that the concerned had committed this crime, as the police did not want to arrest innocent people. He also announced a reward of Rs 25,000 to the team in recognition of the efforts put in and success achieved by the team which cracked this case.

Kavyashree (25), who is married and whose husband currently works at Dubai, has also been arrested for the crime. She works at Kanachur hospital, he stated. Kavyashree had developed hatred towards her elder brother because of differences she had with him on various issues.

Deputy commissioners of police, Sanjeev Patil and Shantaraju, and assistant police commissioner, Valentine D'Souza, were present at the press conference.

The commissioner said that investigation in the case is continuing. The team which solved this mysterious case included city crime branch assistant commissioner of police, Valentine D'Souza, assistant commissioner of police (south division), Shruti, Konaje police inspector, Ashok, and other staff.

Karthik Raj, an engineering graduate, was murdered during his jogging routine on October 22, 2016 near Ganesh Mahal near Asaigoli. He was found lying in a pool of blood in a critical state at the spot after having been attacked with lethal weapons by unknown assailants. The incident had happened in the early hours, and a newspaper delivery boy who was passing by, saw Karthik Raj and informed police station located nearby. Thereafter, Karthik was taken to a hospital at Deralakatte, but without showing improvement in condition, he breathed his last on October 23. The police, who initially thought this to be a case of an accident, took up investigation actively after postmortem reports confirmed that he was killed.

Initially the theory of rift within family was being coined as the reason for this murder. But during police investigation, no such issue cropped up. But, after two protests were held against the inertia of police department in investigating the case, city police commissioner formed a special team which included police personnel from Konaje station, for re-investigating the case.

The special team took into possession two siblings who were living at Pandit House in the past, and who currently live at Madoor Kondana. It is said that they were given the contract for killing Karthik Raj by a member of Kartikaraj's fmaily, who too stands arrested.