Nearly two-and-a-half years after a retired senior officer of the Indian Air Force was murdered in his residence off Hosur Road, the Bengaluru district police on Thursday claimed to have solved the case with the arrest of a gang of 12 persons comprising mostly truck and cab drivers.
Some of the gang members were picked up while moving around suspiciously near a gated community on the outskirts of the city.
Police said that the gang members are from the outskirts of the city. They were arrested in connection with a dacoity case. When questioned, they claimed to have committed more than 20 robberies across the city, and five were involved in the murder of Air Commodore Parvez Khokar (retd.) during a robbery attempt, sources said.
They had smothered 71-year-old Air Commodore Khokar after he resisted their robbery attempt in his villa in November 2014, the police said. His wife Promila was asleep in an adjacent bedroom.
According to the police, Srinivas (21), Girisha (33), Nagaraj (28), Subramani (32) and Satya Narayana (28) had entered the villa. Khokar, who was asleep in his bedroom, noticed them and put up a tough fight. Enraged by this, the robbers overpowered him. They stuffed a piece of cloth into his mouth, tied his hands and legs before smothering him using a pillow.
"Soon they realised their blunder and left without robbing the villa," Semant Kumar Singh, Inspector General of Police (Central range), said. After lying low for a few days, they joined their associates to commit other crimes, he added.
The Hebbagodi police had suspected Khokar's wife of having a hand in the murder since the motive was not clear. After a detailed probe, they had concluded that the murder was the fallout of a robbery bid gone wrong.
They had rounded up several habitual offenders and a special team had even visited Delhi to question officials of two private companies where Khokar was employed for some time. However, they failed to get any leads.
It was the arrest of the 12 member-gang that led police to the murderers. The police have cross-checked the fingers prints lifted from the villa to confirm their involvement, a senior police officer, who is part of the investigation, said.
They recovered gold and diamond jewellery, and expensive gadgets, including a Rolex watch, a revolver and several rounds of ammunition, from the gang.
The other members of the gang are Suresh (38), Manjunath (24), Subramani (24), Thimmaraju (22), N. Babu (26), M. Babu (26) and Ravindra (31).
