Observer The weekly
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
VOL13ISSUE16
20-year-old killed in hit-andrun accident
Angry brother attempts to kill sister
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ISRO launches India’s first mission to Mars
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Kidnapped and murdered Sneha Mejari
Twomenhavebeenbookedfor kidnappingandmurderinga4year-oldgirlandlaterdumping heronNICEroad. On January 21, Chanamari Gowda, Supervisor Officer, found a body near Lal stands on NICE road. According to Girish, an official in Byatarayanapura Police Station, the body was completely rotten and the hands and legs were tied with a rope. Identifying the gender was also a problem for the police due to the condition of the body. During the post mortem, doctors found a pair of earrings which were identified by Nityashri, the victim’s mother. Harshika, the victim, was kidnapped on January 17, while she was playing in the backyard of her house. Her father, Venugopal, filed a missing report soon aer she went missing. Investigating Officer T. Kodandram said that the two suspects, Umesh, 19, who was a tenant at Venugopal’s house and Chetan, 24, who was a family friend, got to know about the land deal which earned Venugopal some money. ey then planned to kidnap Harshika and blackmail them by demanding two lakh rupees as ransom. Chetan worked as a driver at his
uncle’s place and also had served as a driver for Venugopal few years back. Umesh, an auto rickshaw driver, was staying at Venugopal for a year.
According to the statement given by Chetan to the police, he dreamed of buying his own car which served as the main reason for kidnapping. He knew he could
not do it alone, so on January 16 he along with the help of Umesh abducted Harshika by taking her away on his bike and later hid her in an auto which belonged to
Exclusive
Umesh(le)andChetan(right)inthepolicestationaerbeingarrestedforthemurderofHarshika
Umesh. He convinced the girl to come with them by telling her that they would take her for a ride on the bike. He added that as Venugopal immediately filed a missing report, they did not get a chance of asking for a ransom. When they came back to check on the girl on January 19, they found her unconscious. So they hit her with a rod followed by strangling her with a sari, aer which the girl died and was dumped on NICE road. Police Inspector, Balaraja said, “e final identification was done with the help of the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report. As evidence, a cloth and a rubber mat in which the victim was wrapped, which belongs to Umesh, will be produced in the court by the police. “A charge sheet has been filed in the Court where Chetan and Umesh will be produced for their trial,” he said. e accused are currently in the central prison and police have seized the auto and the bike that was used for kidnapping the girl. e first hearing was scheduled for October 8 but failed to take place as the accused could not turn up due to shortage of staff to escort them. e next hearing is scheduled to be on November 7.