M’lore: Police clueless on Bettampady murders as suspect still missing

TOI

Mangalore, 19 Jun 2012: Dakshina Kannada district police still have no information on the whereabouts of Venkataramana Bhat, 50, whose family including wife and children was found murdered at Kakkuru Mane in Bettampady village in Puttur, about 80-km from here. The incident came to light on June 14, when Mescom meter reader went to the house to read the meter. He saw the bodies with multiple stab injuries when he entered the house smelling something foul.

 

 

SP Abhishek Goyal said Venkataramana Bhat is a suspect in this case and police will be able to glean more details once he is traced. "Until such time that he is found and confesses to the deed or gives us his statement, which has to be verified, we will not be in a position to state much," he said, adding police teams are on the lookout for Bhat. Police suspect that the incident could have taken place on June 11 and the bodies discovered three days later.

 

The deceased are Sandhya, 40, a school teacher and Bhat’s wife and their children Vedhya, 18, Harigovind,16, and Vinuta, 12. Observing that during the course of investigation, police have gathered that Bhat did not have much of a social life and came across as a eccentric person, he said police have recovered typed research notes of a project that he was working on to produce electricity through gravity. "The notes do not make sense," he said.

 

Bhat also did not have any significant debts or any civil litigation or other major social issues, one which normally spurs people to resort to such drastic step, SP said adding his claim of dacoits attacking his house on night of June 4 too is riddled with discrepancies. "We are not ruling out his claim on dacoity," SP said, adding that registering a false complaint with police is a minor offense under section 182 of IPC punishable with 6-months imprisonment.

 

Even if his complaint on dacoity was false and he was tried, the punishment for it was far less compared to punishment that awaits him if found guilty for subsequent turn of events where his entire family is no more, SP said. Police have also not been able to get much information out of Vimala, a typist hired by Bhat to type out his research notes, SP said adding discrepancies in versions of witnesses in a dacoity, especially during night vary.