Kundapur: Murder by sister - Police visit spot, accused admits to crime

Silvester D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur

Updated

Kundapur, Jun 12: The Kundapur police led by DySP Yashoda and Byndoor circle inspector Arunkumar on Wednesday June 12 visited the spot where Tunga alias Prema was murdered and her body disposed off.

Tunga was allegedly murdered by her younger sister Singari through contract killer Anand Naik. Her body was found over 40 days after she went missing in April. The body had been reduced to mere skeleton.

Tunga

A forensic team also accompanied the police.

The accused Singari, her brother-in-law Raghavendra and Anand Naik have been arrested in the case. On Wednesday, the accused Naik showed the police where the body had been disposed.

Tunga was the daughter to Narayan Poojary, and was the third among 6 siblings. The others are Sushila, Gopal, Singari, Saadhu and Shanti. She was married to Vittal Poojary, and had two children Saujanya (14) and Subramanya (12).

Police sources said that Anand admitted to having murderd Tunga. The body was thrown in a forest between Jadkal and Halkal.

Three people have been named witnessnes in the case. They are Prabhakar, Vasant Hegde, and Girija.

Earlier Report

Kundapur: Woman murders sister through contract killer, police recover body

Silvester D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur

Kundapur, Jun 12: The skeletal remains of a woman who had gone missing in April this year were found in a forest at Halkal Charsal, Byndoor here on Tuesday June 11 evening. What is more shocking is that the deceased woman's younger sister along with a relative had allegedly killed her by giving supari to a neighbour.

The deceased, Prema alias Tunga, had gone missing on April 24 this year, after she left from her home to visit her neighbour Anand Naik. A missing complaint was registered the next day, on April 25, and Byndoor police had began a search. However, she was not traced.

Tunga was a resident of Maiteri in Golihole here. Investigation has revealed that her sister Singari, who was living with her, and Singari's husband's brother Raghavendra had given supari to neighbour Anand Naik to finish off Tunga over a property dispute. Singari's husband is into hotel business in Mumbai and seldom visits Kundapur, while Tunga's husband, a coolie by occupation, is said to be mentally a little weak.

Anand Naik is known among the locals as a smuggler and thief who makes his living through criminal means. The police too had an eye on him.

Moreover, a day after the missing complaint was filed, Tunga's young daughter, studying in std 8, had visited the police station and insisted that her mother had not gone missing but had been killed. However, the police did not take her pleas seriously as investigation had just begun. The locals too had felt that Tunga was murdered, but in the absence of evidence, no one came forward with any allegation. Though Anand Naik was detained a day after Tunga went missing, he did not reveal anything about the murder and was let off. But when he absconded soon after, police suspicion about him grew stronger.

The police learnt from locals that Tunga and Anand had been seen together talking and travelling by bus. The police then checked Tunga's call records and learnt that the last call made to her was from Anand's number. They then traced Anand through mobile phone tracker and again took him into custody and probed further. On thorough interrogation, he spilled the beans about the murder.

It is said that Singari and Tunga had locked horns over a property dispute. The case was in court, but at home too there used to be constant fights, sources said. Moreover, Singari reportedly feared that in spite of spending a lot of money on the case over the years, the house would not come to her. She also felt that the money to be spent on the case could instead be paid to a contract killer and the dispute put to an end once and for all.

Accordingly, she plotted with her husband's brother Raghuvendra and struck a deal of Rs 50,000 with Anand who agreed to do the job. Rs 25,000 was paid to him as advance, and the remaining amount was promised after the job was done. In his statement to the police, Anand said that though he had carried out Singari's instructions in killing Tunga, she had not yet paid him the remaining amount.

Based on Anand's statement, police arrested Singari and Raghavendra on Monday June 10 itself in a secret operation and sources said that they were produced in court later. The accused were taken to Charsal forest to locate the spot where Tunga's body had been disposed off. The body had completely decomposed and only the skeletal remains were found, it is learnt.

Further investigations are on.