Kamal Ghorui
BENGALURU: A chaat shop owner and his employee have been arrested for allegedly murdering the man’s estranged wife at Dwarakanagar, Rajarajeshwarinagar. The accused are Virupaksha Gowda, 29, a native of Kunigal taluk, Tumakuru district, and his employee, Pundalika Janappa Lamani,19, of Gavipuram.Asha S, 31, a native of Kunigal, was found hanging at her Dwarakanagar residence around 1.30pm on Jan 10. Her elder brother Arun Kumar filed a complaint suspecting foul play, following which police registered a case of unnatural death.
A postmortem at Victoria Hospital confirmed she died of ligature strangulation. Police registered a murder case on Jan 14 and arrested Virupaksha and Pundalika. Virupaksha confessed to killing his wife and detailed his assistant’s role.Police said Virupaksha went to Asha’s house and strangled her with a rope. He then enlisted Pundalika’s help to hang the body from a ceiling fan to pass it off as suicide. The duo were produced before court on Jan 15 and remanded to eight days’ police custody. Asha had married Virupaksha six years ago after a love affair. She had filed for divorce, and the next hearing was scheduled for Jan 27. The couple had no children.
