The Hindu : Karnataka News : Five accused in murder case remanded in police custody

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 16, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Five accused in murder case remanded in police custody

By Our Staff Correspondent

BIJAPUR, AUG. 15. Five persons arrested in connection with the murder of Prabhakar Shah, who was a doctor, and his wife, Sudha Shah, were remanded in police custody on Sunday.

The main accused Prasad Vishpute (28), a diploma engineer in computer science and his accomplices, Satish Basappa Kapale, Manjunath Ramanna Kabbin and Bheemaray Hanumanth Bagali of Bijapur and Motilal Dharmsingh Rathod from Baratagi Tanda near here are in police custody.

The body of Prabhakar Shah was recovered near Bidari in the Krishna left bank canal on Saturday evening. The post-mortem was conducted on the spot as the body was in decomposed state. The accused had packed the body in a gunny bag and dumped it into the Krishna near Chikkapadasalagi. However, the search for the body of Sudha Shah, which was also thrown into the Krishna, is on.

Addressing presspersons here today, the Superintendent of Police, Seemant Kumar Singh, said forensic experts had collected vital clues from the house of Vishpute. It appeared that they tried to destroy evidence by washing the place. The experts were able to collect bloodstains and hair. Clothes, ropes, and weapons with bloodstains were recovered from the accused.

Mr. Singh said according to the confession statement given by the arrested, they killed the couple at the house of Vishpute near Gol Gumbaz. Vishpute had invited the victims to finalise the sale deed of the latter's property. The main accused had sent his wife to her parents' house along with children two days before committing crime.

As per their confession, he said the car carrying the bodies of Prabhakar Shah and his wife left Vishpute's house at 8 p.m. on August 11. The car belonged to Prabhakar Shah. It was driven by one of the accused. The other accused followed the car in a Tempo Trax jeep owned by Motilal Dharmsingh Rathod who was now in police custody, he said.

Mr. Singh said Vishpute wanted to purchase the property of Prabhakar Shah, who had helped him obtain a loan from a bank by mortgaging the same property. Vishpute created fake documents that showed that he had paid money to Prabhakar Shah for the property. Some documents had been seized, he added.

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