Bengaluru: Karthikesh, the 39-year-old son of former Karnataka police chief Om Prakash, has accused his mother and sister of killing his father at the family’s home in Bengaluru.
The 1981 batch IPS officer was found in a pool of blood in his living room Sunday evening at the family’s residence in HSR Layout. There were multiple stab wounds on the former top cop’s body, according to the police.
“My mother, Mrs. Pallavi, had been threatening to kill my father, Mr. Omprakash (Retired DGP and IGP), for the past one week. Due to these threats, my father had gone to stay at the residence of his sister, Ms. Saritha Kumari,” Karthikesh says in his complaint.
His younger sister Kruthi then forced Om Prakash to return home two days against the latter’s wish, according to the complaint.
“My mother, Mrs. Pallavi, and my sister, Kruthi, have been suffering from depression and used to fight with my father frequently. I strongly suspect that they are involved in the murder of my father,” Karthikesh says in his complaint.
There was a broken bottle and a knife next to his father’s body, he added.
Pallavi has been detained since Sunday and subject to questioning, the police said. An FIR has been filed at HSR Layout Police Station under Sections 103(1), 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
Srinivas Gowda, a police inspector considered close to the retired DGP, said that Om Prakash did mention the problems he was having at home due to his wife. He told media reporters Sunday evening that there were stab injuries to the neck and that Om Prakash was repeatedly stabbed.
On Sunday evening, the police said that they found a sharp-edged weapon but it was not ascertained whether it was used to commit the crime.
Reports indicate that Pallavi had confided in some friends about her husband carrying a gun around the home. There were media reports that the wife told one friend that she killed a “monster”. Om Prakash had served as the Karnataka police chief between 2015 and 2017
The murder had threatened to spark a political slugfest in Karnataka, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accusing the ruling Congress of losing its grip on law and order in the state.
BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya Sunday evening said that the murder showed lawlessness in Karnataka under the Congress rule. But it later emerged that the retired police officer’s wife was the likely suspect, prompting Karnataka IT minister Priyank Kharge to dub Malviya as “a joker” in a sharp rebuttal on ‘X’.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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