The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Scientist's murder: police still groping in the dark

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 10, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Scientist's murder: police still groping in the dark

According to Bangalore Rural police, there has been no progress in investigation, writes K.V. Subramanya

SEVERAL MAJOR crimes reported from Bangalore Rural district have remained unsolved for many years. The most important of such cases is the sensational murder of a retired scientist that took place six years ago.

The Bangalore Rural district police are still groping in the dark to trace the culprits who murdered the retired CSIR scientist G.N. Chandrashekar (65) at his house on Old Madras Road in Hoskote police station limits on July 25, 2001. The scientist's murder not only hit the headlines, but also came in handy for the Opposition, which grilled the Government over the rising crime in and around Bangalore.

Assurance

The then Home Minister M. Mallikarjun Kharge had assured members of the Assembly and the Council that the police would soon arrest the culprits.

The Bangalore Rural district police say there is no progress in the investigation. In the last six years, all officers from the Superintendent of Police to the sub-inspector of Hoskote police station have been transferred and the current officers are not even aware of the facts of the case.

In the absence of any clues, the police suspected various people and probed the murder from different angles.

Suspicion

After the assailants slit Chandrashekar's throat and brutally assaulted his wife, Padmaja, also a retired CSIR scientist, and looted Rs. 25,000 from their house, the police initially suspected it to be the handiwork of the Dandupalya gang.

This was because the crime had all the trappings of a typical Dandupalya operation, such as killing a person by slitting the throat, washing the weapons at the place of crime and assaulting those present at the scene.

The police later ruled out the involvement of the gang as the description of the assailants given by Padmaja did not match with the profiles of any known member of the gang.

Padmaja, who was in hospital for almost a month, on her recovery told the police that two jeans-clad youth entered the house on the pretext of repairing the telephone.

The intruders were carrying a heavy telephone instrument, which is normally used by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) employees and hit her on the head with the instrument, she said.

On this information, the police interrogated a few linemen of BSNL and directed all the linemen to carry identity cards while on duty.

No leads

However, the police could not obtain any lead by questioning the BSNL employees.

Further, the police, who got some information that two jeans-clad youth had killed a couple of people by slitting their throats in Mysore district, probed this angle also, but in vain.

The police also suspected the involvement of some students from Assam who were staying on the first floor house of Chandrashekar. But their suspicion turned out to be false.

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Karnataka