The Byappanahalli police on Tuesday arrested a 33-year-old volunteer of a city- based NGO on charges of murdering the wife of a scientist at the DRDO Quarters in C.V. Raman Nagar, just a day after the murder.
A moped belonging to the accused, abandoned near the scene of crime, helped the police track him down.
The accused, R Vijayan, a resident of Horamavu, and a volunteer with “Youth with Mission” was a credit card defaulter. He allegedly murdered Rajani Rajabala (46) on Monday morning and robbed her of two gold chains, the police said. The victim was the wife of Amrit Pakhiya Das, scientist ‘D’with the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), which comes under DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation).
Vijayan’s father, Ramanirutham, is a retired DRDO technical officer in the GTRE (Gas Turbine Research Establishment) division. The family of the suspected killer used to be Rajabala’s neighbours. As a result, Vijayan’s was a familiar face which helped a neighbour identify him when he was fleeing the rear compound wall of the quarters. Vijayan had used his credit card up to Rs. 1 lakh and had been sent notices by the bank warning they would confiscate his possessions.
He was after Rajabala to help him out of the situation. When she declined, he hatched a plot to kill her, the police alleged. To make it look like a suicide, Vijayan told Rajabala that he was working on a documentary about a marital discord and sought her help to write a script, including a suicide note, in return for a fee. An unsuspecting Rajabala obliged, the police said.
He later started threatening her for money saying he would kill her and make it look like suicide. When she did not budge, he decided to carry out his threat, kill her and rob her gold chains, the police said.
Once the deed was done, Vijayan managed to hop and jump from the third floor apparently using the ledge and balconies. In the process, he hurt his spine and lost the keys of his moped parked outside the quarters. Vijayan was forced to abandon the moped. One police team came upon the moped and traced Vijayan’s address. Another team scoured the hospital in the area to see if he had got himself admitted for medical treatment.
The fact that Vijayan was an erstwhile neighbour helped the police track him down. The knife used in the murder and two gold chains along with the moped have been seized, the police said.
