Banker's death: It's murder, not suicide

Bengaluru: In just 15 days, the mystery of the death of a 50-year-old bank manager was solved and what appeared as suicide was in fact a murder.

The bank manager, Muniyappa, a resident of R.T. Nagar, was found dead in his car, which lay abandoned near Malagala underpass in Kamakshipalya police limits on August 16.

Pradeep and Abhilash

His family members found him dead in the back seat of the car and an empty pesticide bottle beside him, raising the suspicion that it was a suicide.  But, the probe by a special team formed by DCP (West) M.N. Anucheth revealed that Muniyappa was murdered and the pesticide bottle was placed by the killers.

The police have arrested four people in this connection and they have been identified as Tilak (36), a real estate agent, loan mediator and a chicken farm owner near Hindalgere, Pradeep alias Bully (25), Mahesh alias Appi (24), both workers at Tilak's chicken farm and Abhilash Gowda alias Adi (25) an auto driver.

The police started the investigation after registering the case under IPC section 302 after Muniyappa's wife Mamata alleged that her husband was murdered which later was confirmed by the postmortem report. It stated that the death was due to “asphyxia as result of ligature strangulation”.

The police analysed the call details of the deceased and examined more than 100 CCTV footage along the route he travelled on the eve of August 15. Muniyappa's car was spotted near the office of one Mahesh C.M., Tilak’s friend.

The police grew suspicious after finding Tilak near the car. Mamata told the police that Muniyappa had told her that he was with Tilak that day.

The police then arrested Tilak and Pradeep, who confessed that they had killed Muniyappa and named two others in the crime.

 DCP Anucheth said that on August 15, Tilak called Muniyappa and asked him to come to Mariyappanapalya on the pretext of conducting a financial transaction. When Muniyappa reached, Pradeep got into the vehicle and took him to Tilak’s guesthouse in Byatarayana Doddi.

By then Mahesh and Abhilash had already reached the guest house and had bought syringes, gloves and socks. There they restrained Muniyappa and forcibly tried to make him drink the pesticide, but Muniyappa resisted and spat it out. Pradeep then strangled Muniyappa with a rope and murdered him. They then put the body in the car and drove it to Malagala where they abandoned it and escaped. 

Why did Tilak kill Muniyappa?
Muniyappa was working as a manager in the Amruthalli Branch of Sudha Co-op bank. He also worked as mediator/broker for providing loans. He would take a loan from a person at a lower interest rate and lend it to others at higher interest rate and thereby make money in the arbitrage and commissions for providing loans.

In 2014, Tilak got introduced to Muniyappa, when he had gone to get an account opened in the Mariyappanapalya branch of Sudha Cooperative Bank, where Muniyappa was then the branch manager.

Muniyappa had had lent Tilak an amount of Rs 1.5 crore in 2014. Tilak had neither repaid the principal nor was he paying the monthly interest. Muniyappa in turn was forced to pay his creditors Rs 22 lakh interest per month, so he was insisting that Tilak pay back the amount.

Nearly 15 days prior to the murder, they had a quarrel. Muniyappa had also threatened to commit suicide if Tilak did not repay. Tilak then decided to murder Muniyappa and make it look like a suicide, DCP Anucheth said. 

Shirt colour of accused helps crack case
Examining more than 600 GBs of footage obtained from more than 100 CCTV cameras was hard for the police investigating the murder of a bank manager, Muniyappa.  But cracking the case through the colour of a shirt worn by one of the accused makes it clear again that there is nothing called a perfect crime. What came handy for the police was the footage recorded on a camera installed at the toll plaza at the Kanakpura exit of NICE Road. Muniyappa's car was spotted in the footage and also the hand of one of the accused, who was later identified as Pradeep. Pradeep, wearing a multicolour shirt, was sitting on the backseat of the car with his left hand on the window. The police made a note of it and matched his shirt with another footage taken from a camera installed at a cycle shop near the office of Tilak's friend. In another footage taken from the same shop, Pradeep was seen with another person, who was later identified as Tilak, DCP (West) M.N. Anucheth said.