BANGALORE: A few hours after call centre employee Pratibha's murder, the main accused Shiva Kumar took the vehicle to the owner and asked for it to be cleaned after the trip in which he picked up the victim.

The owner R.C. Renukappa related this on Wednesday at the hearing of the murder a Fast Track Sessions Court here. Mr. Renukappa said Shiva Kumar, who was the driver of his vehicle, came to his house on the evening of December 12, 2005, along with Girish Babu. Mr. Babu was working as the supervisor of S.R.S Travels, which was transporting Hewlett Packard and IBM employees.

Mr. Renukappa said Shiva Kumar took the vehicle saying that he would drop Mr. Babu to his house and go for duty to HP company. He came to know from HP that Shiva Kumar had not reported to duty. When enquired Shiva Kumar said he was in Raja Rajeshwari Nagar. "It was in the early hours of December 13 that Shiva Kumar came back and gave me the vehicle keys," he said.

Shiva Kumar came later and said that the vehicle was dirty and needed to be taken to a service station. It was serviced by 4 p.m. "There was an engine oil change, wheel alignment and a water service," Mr. Renukappa said. Shiva Kumar took Mr. Renukappa's mobile phone and went for dropping IBM employees on December 14.

The next day Shiva Kumar looked worried when he returned from duty. "I asked him the reason. He did not say anything and went away," Mr. Renukappa said. On December 17, he felt sad after coming to know that his vehicle was used in the murder of Pratibha.

Charges denied

Earlier, Mr. Babu refuted all the allegations made by defence counsel S. Shankarappa about his involvement in the murder. He denied that he had met Pratibha's husband Pavan Shetty and had planned Pratibha's murder.

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