Probe into Bengaluru twin murders helps police crack Mandya twin murders

On October 17, Chandre Gowda (63), a retired private firm employee, and his wife Lakshmamma (55) were found dead in their home by a man who ran a store in the building where the couple lived. The shopkeeper noticed that the water tank in the building (owned by the couple) was overflowing and tried calling the couple. Getting no response, he peeked through a window and found Chandre Gowda lying dead. When police arrived, they found Lakshmamma dead in a bedroom and the house ransacked.

The investigation revealed that the couple had visitors the previous evening, as Chandre Gowda had visited the local store at dusk with a child in order to buy a snack for the crying infant. Technical analysis and other leads narrowed down the identity of the visitors and possible killers to cab driver Venkatesh C H (30) and his wife Arpita (21). The couple, who had visited the elderly victims with their 18-month-old-child, were traced to a friend’s house in Mangaluru on October 26 and arrested.

Police found that Venkatesh and Arpita met Chandre Gowda and Lakshmamma at a relative’s wedding in September. “Lakshmamma is a distant relative of Venkatesh. He met them at a wedding in Mysuru. Seeing the jewels on her, Venkatesh and his wife decided to target this couple,” police said in a statement. According to the police, the alleged killers gained the confidence of the couple by paying a few visits to their home.

On the evening of October 16, the killer couple allegedly visited the home again with their child to carry out the murders and robbery. After attacking Chandre Gowda and Lakshmamma “on their head with a spanner”, “they searched the house for valuables and decamped with gold jewels, silver articles and cash”.

After obtaining Rs 8.6 lakh in cash from a jewellery store for the gold, the alleged killers “absconded to their friend’s house in a village in Dakshina Kannada district. Based on clues, they were nabbed on October 26,” Mahadevapura police said.

Venkatesh, who bought a car on loan and linked it to an app-based cab service, had reportedly run up debt. “Venkatesh had loans amounting to Rs 10 lakh, and decided to repay by committing murder,” the police said.

Interrogation of the couple — who got married in 2016 — for the Bengaluru murders took an unexpected turn when Venkatesh said he had committed a similar crime in Mandya in July. “Investigations revealed that an elderly couple — Gundegowda (55) and his wife Lalitamma (50) — were murdered in a similar fashion by Venkatesh on the night of July 12, 2019,” Mahadevapura police said.

The Bengaluru police found that the July murders in Rayasamudra village were carried out by Venkatesh, who stayed at the couple’s home one night since Lalitamma was his distant relative. After the murder, he allegedly stole 60 grams of gold and sold it for Rs 1.8 lakh to the same jeweller in Bengaluru.

Soon after the Mandya murders, the local police had implicated their neighbours — Yogesh Gowda and his wife Sujata — as the killers. “The neighbours were falsely implicated. This is what our probe has revealed,” the senior police officer said.

“We will collect details of the findings from the case in Bengaluru and examine if there are links with the suspects arrested in the Mandya case. If we are convinced that these suspects did not have any role in the murder, then we will provide a report to the court,” Mandya SP R Parashuram said.