Bangalore: Man, friend held for fiance’s murder

 

• Police say Nandan Gowda killed Ramya as she pestered him to marry her

 

Bangalore, 24 May 2013 (DHNS): The City police claimed on Thursday to have solved the mysterious murder of Ramya, a 25-year-old bride-to-be from Goruguntepalya, by arresting the victim’s fiancée and his friend.

 

The arrests have taken the case to an entirely different dimension, as Gowda had initially asserted that Ramya did not meet him on Tuesday night when she was supposed to. The couple, courting each other since last year, was to get married on Wednesday morning.

 

Police are certain that Gowda had only reluctantly agreed to the marriage, more so because Ramya had reportedly threatened  to file a criminal complaint against him if he didn’t marry her.

 

Gowda is said to have told the police that his girlfriend was pestering him to marry her after the couple grew closer and struck a physical relationship. He, however, was not willing to oblige her, fearing that his family would never approve the alliance as both belonged to different castes. Gowda is a Vokkaliga and Ramya was a Bhovi. She threatened to destroy his family and lodge a police complaint against them, Gowda reportedly told the investigators, quoting Ramya. Besides, she demanded that Gowda shift from his present shanty at Hesaraghatta to a better house in the City.

 

Finding no way out, Gowda agreed to marry her, although he apparently had other designs. To ensure that Gowda didn’t backtrack, Ramya took him to Srinivasa Temple in Mahalakshmi Layout on Monday and scheduled their marriage for Wednesday.

 

In addition, she made him speak to her parents and seek their blessings. Thus, she satisfied herself that there was no more hurdle in her marriage, police said.

 

Firm decision

But as fate would have it, Gowda remained firm in his decision to not marry her and instead planned to get rid of her. According to police, he allegedly conspired with his friend, Sunil, to murder Ramya. On Tuesday evening, Gowda called her up on her mobile phone and asked her to meet him at JP Park, Mattikere. Police say an unsuspecting Ramya then left the house, but not before informing her mother. Gowda borrowed a car from his friend, Manjunath, a plumbing contractor, and waited for Ramya at the said place.

 

His friend, Sunil, accompanied him. The three then reached a nearby restaurant and offered Ramya some chaat and cold drinks in which Gowda allegedly mixed sedatives. But Ramya didn’t appear to be influenced by the drug.

 

Gowda then took her to a coffee store where he offered her cold coffee, laced with sedatives. He later drove Ramya to a deserted place where he and Sunil pounced on her, strangling her with the wire of a mobile phone charger. The two then dumped her body at a vacant plot at Goruguntepalya. Not to take chances, they also stoned her. 

 

‘Attempt to mislead’

Police say that in order to prove his innocence, Gowda turned up at Ramya’s house on Wednesday morning and claimed that he was waiting for her at the temple. He also denied that Ramya met him in the evening. He even accompanied her family to Yeshwantpur police station to complain about her supposed disappearance. Besides, he tried to “mislead” the police, saying Ramya was with Meera, their common friend who lives in Matthikere and has since been traced.

 

Meera told the police that her mobile phone was with her sister who had removed her SIM card two days ago. Gowda told the police that Meera did not have any role in the crime. A senior police officer, however, said that her name is yet to be cleared and she is being interrogated.