The body of the businessman from Hyderabad was found in a coffee estate in Kodagu district (Coorg) of Karnataka.
| Photo Credit: Murali Kumar K
Police in Karnataka have uncovered a grisly plot behind the murder of a 54-year-old businessman from Hyderabad in Telangana, allegedly by his wife and her accomplices who later drove more than 800 km to a coffee estate in Suntikoppa in Kodagu district with the body and set it on fire.
When police found a half-charred body inside the coffee estate on October 8, an investigation was begun to identity the deceased.
They began gathering technical data, including CCTV footage on the movement of vehicles on the highway, which is about a kilometre from the coffee estate where the charred body was found.
After going through data of hundreds of vehicles passing through the area around the time of the crime, the police zeroed in on a red-colour high-end car, whose owner Ramesh Kumar, 54, was reported missing recently.
Kodagu police had constituted four special teams to investigate the case. They got in touch with their counterparts in Telangana and gathered information about Ramesh Kumar’s personal life. During the course of their investigation, police suspected the role of his wife Niharika, 29, and questioned her.
According to police, Ramesh Kumar had recently sold a property for ₹8 crore, which his wife was eyeing.
When she was taken into custody, Niharika reportedly confessed to her involvement in the murder of Ramesh Kumar and identified her accomplices as Nikhil, 28, a veterinary doctor from Bengaluru with whom she was in a relationship, and Ankul Rana, 30, who hails from Haryana.
The accused strangulated Ramesh Kumar to death in Uppal in Hyderabad and picked up the cash kept in the house. They drove in the victim’s car to Bengaluru before proceeding to Kodagu to dispose off the body.
Later, Niharika returned to Hyderabad and lodged a missing complaint about her husband.
The Kodagu police, who arrested Niharika and Nikhil on October 22, managed to take Ankur Rana into custody from Haridwar in Uttarakhand.
Published – October 28, 2024 01:31 pm IST
