Bantwal, October 20: The incident in which a man had drowned in River Netravati at Navoor in the taluk on Saturday, which was initially considered as suicide, has now taken a new turn. During the preliminary investigation, the police learnt that it was a murder case post which five persons have been arrested.
The body of a local man named Suresh (38) was found from River Netravati on the night of Saturday at Navoor village. The report lodged with the police had claimed that Suresh had been to the river after work on Saturday to wash himself before returning home, but had slipped and drowned. The police grew suspicious during preliminary investigations over the possibility of this incident being a murder and hence, they had conducted deep investigations.
It is gathered that along with the deceased Suresh; Neelappa (55), and his two sons namely Vasant (26) and Ramesh (24), Koti alias Harish (45), Hemachandra alias Guru (30), had been to a function held in a house at Navoor on Saturday night. They were completely drunk when they reached the banks of the river at around 12 am in the midnight. At that moment, Harish and Suresh fought over some issue. Later, Harish pushed Suresh into the river and killed him. The other accused supported Harish in this crime, it is alleged. After killing Suresh, they dragged his body to the river bank, placed it there, and returned to the house where the programme was going on, learnt the police.
The police also learnt that the accused people used to work together in areca nut plantations, and were involved in areca nut theft, many time. The others grew angry after Harish during arguments, threatened the others of revealing about their involvement in thefts.
Initially, Harish himself had filed a police complaint, in which he had expressed that Suresh might have drowned accidentally. Suspecting foul play, Suresh’s wife filed a complaint with the police stating that her husband was killed by his own friends.
Following this, the case was cracked within two days by the police team under the guidance of ASP Rahul Kumar, police circle inspector, K U Belliappa and sub-inspector, Rakshit.
The arrested accused has been subjected to continuous probe. It is gathered that in the past, Koti alias Harish had involved in many theft cases. The arrested will be produced in the court on Tuesday October 20th.
