Karnataka - Bangalore   

Employee arrested for businessman’s murder

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

BREAKTHROUGH: Deputy Commissioner of Police B.N.S. Reddy (right) quizzing Mallesh (centre), an accused in the murder of businessman Dhanaraj Ranka, in Bangalore on Wednesday.

BANGALORE: The Silver Jubilee Park police have arrested a 23-year-old man on charge of murdering businessman Dhanaraj S. Ranka (51), whose body was found inside his shop in a commercial complex near the K.R. Market on January 25.

The arrested, Mallesh of Mysore, was an employee at Mahesh Trading Company, a sanitary fittings shop owned by Ranka. Mallesh claimed that Ranka’s elder son Kiran Kumar was involved in the murder and he had paid him Rs. 20,000 to keep his mouth shut, the police said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) B.N.S. Reddy told The Hindu on Wednesday that they were investigating Kiran and ascertaining whether the claims made by Mallesh were true.

Mallesh told the police that Kiran was suspicious about his father’s activities as he used to return home late everyday. Thus Kiran decided to keep a watch on his father.

Around 8 p.m. on January 24, Ranka closed the shop, handed over the day’s collection to Kiran and told him that he would be going to Avenue Road to visit a friend.

A suspicious Kiran and Mallesh returned to the shop around 8.30 p.m. and found that the doors were open. When they entered, they found Ranka in the company of a hijra. Enraged by this, Kiran hit his father on the head with an iron rod, Mallesh told the police.

On Kiran’s instructions, Mallesh too attacked his employer with the rod. Mallesh claimed that Kiran paid him Rs. 20,000 cash, the police said. The police have seized Mallesh’s blood-stained clothes from his brother-in-law’s house in Kamakshipalya and the keys of the shop.

Around 10.30 a.m. on January 25, Ranka’s younger son Vikram lodged a complaint with the Ulsoor Gate police that his father had gone missing.

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