Kasargod: 1993 Perla double murder case - Accused found guilty
Stephan Kayyar
Daijiworld Media Network – Kasargod (EP)
Kasargod, Nov 20: The additional district and sessions court on Tuesday November 19 ruled that Imam Hussain (50), a resident of Sagar in Shimoga was guilty of murdering Srikrishna Bhat and his wife in Devaloka, Perla, twenty years after the murder took place.
The court will pronounce its verdict on November 21.
The incident had occurred on October 9, 1993. Notorious black magician Imam Hussain had murdered Krishna Bhat and his wife, who were farmers. He had then escaped with their jewellery.
Police were on the lookout for Imam ever since the crime took place, but could not find him. He was finally arrested after 19 years on April 20, 2012, by a special squad of Nelamangala crime branch, Bangalore. He was arrested from a rented house near Yeshwantpur in a joint operation by the Kannur and Nelamangala crime branch police.
In 1993, he had been staying at a lodge in Mangalore and engaged himself in black magic and astrology. Srikrishna Bhat and his wife who saw advertisements about this in newspapers met him and invited him to their residence. He made them believe that there was a treasure in their house and revisited them on October 9, 1993. It is learnt that he took Bhat to the garden and asked him to offer prayers at the place where the treasure was believed to be hidden and killed him with a pick axe. He then came back and strangled his wife and fled away with their valuables.
At the time of the murder the couple's three children Muralikrishna, Niranjan and Sudarshan were studying in 6th and 7th standards.
There were 68 witnesses in the case, but over the years, due to deaths and other reasons, the number of witnesses was reduced to 39.
However, the jewellery stolen from the house of Krishna Bhat could not be found. The accused admitted that he sold the jewellery in a shop at Pune. When the accused was taken there, the jeweller could not be located. The accused said that the sword used for the crime was thrown in a lake, but police were unable to find it. Police suspect that it might have got rusted and mixed up in the mud.
M S Thomas D’ Souza had argued for the prosecution.