HYDERABAD: Jubilee Hills police detected the missing case of television artist and YouTuber K.Karthik, who went missing on August 13 and arrested his friend Toleti Sai, a YouTuber and his three friends, who had brutally murdered him in a reserve forest area at Bowenpally.
On the confession of the accused, police recovered the skeletal remains of Karthik from the forest area. The skeletal remains are around 40 bones including the skull, jaw bones, femur bone, and pelvic bones.
Based on the clothes of Karthik which were found on the spot and based on the confession of the accused, police concluded the skeletal remains belonged to Karthik. They are being sent to the Forensic Lab for DNA profiling.
A woman, who is also working in the television industry, was initially friends with Sai, but later dumped him and became friends with Karthik. Nursing a grudge on this, Sai along with his friends, brutally murdered him. Based on technical evidence and other clues, the case was detected and the accused were caught, said DCP West Zone, D Joel Davis.
According to police, when the woman started staying with Karthik, Sai tried to take her from Karthik’s home, resulting in a scuffle between them. Later on August 13, Karthik who left home went missing. His family waited for his return, but when they found his mobile phone was switched off, they approached the police on August 16 and initially a missing case was registered.
During the investigation, police found out about the rivalry between Karthik and Sai and also about the scuffle. Further, they also found clues from CCTVs showing Karthik moving with the accused. Accordingly, they were picked up for questioning on Saturday.
Initially, they claimed to be innocent, but when confronted with the clues, they admitted to having killed Karthik. Police found that Sai called up Karthik to collect the woman’s luggage from his room and took him to the forest area, where he along with his friends first slashed his throat and then attacked him repeatedly with boulders, killing him instantly.
Police suspect that strays fed on Karthik’s body, as the skeletal remains were found scattered around a 200-metre area. They have been collected along with Karthik’s clothes and sent for forensic analysis. The accused have been remanded to judicial custody.
