Stephan Kayyar
Daijiworld Media Network - Kasargod (EP)

Kasargod, Nov 13: Kasargod police led by Kasargod SP K G Simone on Monday November 13 arrested two brothers in connection with the murder of a man from Bagalkot at Cherkala three months ago.

They have been identified as Vittala (33) and his brother Akkundappa (30), natives of Belagavi in Karnataka.

They were arrested in connection with the murder of Rangappa Gaji (38), a native of Bagalkot.

His decomposed body was found in a deserted spot near the national highway on August 9. His head was found to have been smashed with a heavy stone.

The deceased was identified with the help of an identity card found nearby. The postmortem was conducted at Periyaram government college hospital. Police had collected several clues and zeroed in on the two accused. Liquor bottle and stone used for the murder were found at the spot.

A case of unnatural death was registered earlier but it was converted as murder after postmortem.

Investigation has revealed that an argument between contract labourers while drinking liquor ended in Rangappa's murder. The incident took place on August 6, three days before Rangappa's body was found.

Vittala and Akkundappa were labourers. Three labourers together used to drink alcohol often. It is learnt Rangappa had given them money to buy liquor on the day of the incident. The three men had drinks together at a deserted spot at Cherkala. The fight began when Rangappa reportedly reminded Akkundappa that he owed him money. Rangappa fell to the ground in drunken stupor. The other two men bludgeoned Rangappa with a heavy stone and left only after making sure that he was dead.

Akkundappa is the prime accused while Vittala who helped him in committing the crime is the second accused.
Rangappa and the accused used to stay in a guest house at Cherkala and used to go to work from there. The special team investigating the murder conducted the probe from different angles. More than 200 people were questioned. The two accused had gone away saying that they are going for a festival. The police first arrested Akkundappa and then Vittala.

Special team led by sub inspector Ravindran Chatangai and consisting of Philip Thomas, ASI Narayanan, Balakrishnan, Raghuthaman, senior civil police officers Laxminarayana, Balakrishnan and Rojan were involved in the operation.