New Delhi: It was a missing persons complaint filed by a woman at Bengaluru’s Srirampura police station that blew the lid off a cab driver’s serial killing rampage to wipe out members of his family in the IT capital’s Rajajinagar neighbourhood.
Bengaluru Police Friday arrested S. Indusekhar alias Arjun Indusekhar, a 52-year-old cab driver accused of killing seven members of his wife’s family—including a seven-year-old boy—over a span of 15-20 days. Police sources said Indusekhar destroyed evidence and chemically scrubbed the crime scenes.
The victims have been identified as Indusekhar’s wife, Sunitha (40), her mother, Roopavati (65), her brothers, Shivakumar (30) and Shankar (44), Divya (30), Nalini (29) (are they sisters-in-law?), and Shivakumar’s seven-year-old son Puneeth.
According to Bengaluru City Police Commissioner Seemanth Kumar Singh, Puneeth’s body was recovered near the foothills of Nandi Hills in Karnataka’s Chikkaballapur district following an hours-long search operation. None of the other bodies have been found so far.
“Police superintendents of multiple districts have launched a probe, and searches are going on targeting all dumping zones to locate the remaining six bodies,” the Bengaluru City CP told mediapersons.
Resentment, and a murder plot
A senior Bengaluru police officer not wanting to be identified told ThePrint that the accused, Indusekhar, and his wife Sunitha had been married for nearly 20 years, but their relationship had been rocky.
“According to preliminary findings, Indusekhar deeply resented Sunitha’s frequent visits to her parental home in Srirampura and how they would constantly interfere in her life. He resented the support she got from her mother and brother,” said the officer, adding, “That is when he decided to eliminate not just Sunitha, but her entire family.”
Police sources said the killings began at Indusekhar’s second-floor residence on 59th Cross, Rajajinagar.
“During interrogation, he revealed that he first attacked Sunitha, striking her on the head with a kitchen grinding stone. He wrapped her body in cloth, loaded it into his cab, and drove out to dispose of it,” the officer quoted earlier said. To avert suspicion, “he switched off her mobile phone and told his neighbours that she had gone on a trip with friends”.
“Over the next two days, Indusekhar systematically lured the remaining family members to his apartment,” the police officer added. Under the guise of “hosting a dinner party”, he invited his brothers-in-law, Shivakumar and Shankar. “After serving them alcohol, he allegedly killed both men with the same grinding stone. He then lured and killed their wives, Roopavati, and Puneeth separately as they arrived at the house.”
‘Used his teen daughter to dispose the bodies’
Following the killings, Indusekhar allegedly used chemicals to bleach the blood-stained floor and sanitise the kitchen tools he used as murder weapons.
“After sustained interrogation, he has revealed that he and his minor daughter, who assisted him, then carried the bodies individually in his cab, dumping them across isolated parts of Karnataka to avoid getting caught,” the officer said.
Bengaluru City CP Singh confirmed that Indusekhar allegedly used his 17-year-old daughter to assist him in packing and disposing of the bodies. “He (Indusekhar) has given a version that he called them one by one, murdered them, and disposed of the bodies in places he indicated. We are actively verifying these details,” he added.
The missing persons report
DCP (North) Babasan Nemagoud told ThePrint that the plot unravelled when a woman, identified as Tungamma, a relative of the victims, noticed that several family members had abruptly stopped answering their phones.
“On 3 November, she filed a formal missing person report at the Srirampura Police Station stating the mysterious disappearance of her relatives Nalini, Shankar, Roopavati, Divya, Shivakumar, and Puneeth,” the DCP said, adding that when Srirampura Police Inspector Poonachha N.M. started looking into the family’s recent movements, his suspicion fell on Indusekhar.
“When he (Indusekhar) was brought in for interrogation at Rajajinagar Police Station on 5 November, Indusekhar initially gave conflicting timelines before confessing to the seven killings. He was formally placed under arrest later that day,” the DCP added.
Special investigation teams, spearheaded by three Assistant Commissioners of Police (ACPs) from Bengaluru’s North Division, are currently examining Indusekhar’s Rajajinagar residence for forensic evidence. They are also looking into Indusekhar’s cab’s GPS to track his movements in order to find the missing bodies.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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