Daijiworld Media Network –Hubballi (PMD) 

Hubballi, Oct 19: 24-year-old Shivalingappa Patil killed his 23-year-old girlfriend Arpita Girimalla Biradar, on May 30, 2015 and evaded arrest for more than a year with a strong alibi. 

Arpita was insisting that Shivalingappa should marry her. So he carried out the murder, taking tips from the Kannada thriller Drishya.

The pair were said to be in a relationship from college days, where the two pursued BSc in Agriculture in Vijayapura. Later Patil moved to Bengaluru for his masters, and Arpita, to Dharwad.

During his PhD programme, Patil was always pestered with his girlfriend's inquisition of their marriage, but he kept putting off the topic for a later day. This constant shirking of a definite answer caused Biradar to threaten Patil of taking the matter to his parents. This threat, in turn, triggered Patil to take to the movie-plot to rid himself of Biradar.

The guilty is said to have called up the victim to meet him at Gabbur Cross where he then strangled her to death. He had left his phone back at the hostel in Bengaluru, managed a proxy attendance in the classroom as the alibi, and headed out to execute the murder. 

The intent and solid execution of the murder was unravelled from the pages of the accused’s diary and a thorough probe by the Hubli-Dharwad commissioner of police, Panduranga Rane. Till then Patil evaded arrest for more than a year.