Bangalore police have cracked several murders over the years, but at least two dozen killings that made headlines in the past decade have remained unsolved.
Interestingly, around 10 of these are double murders.
As the police failed to either establish the motive or crack the cases, justice still seems to be a far cry for the bereaved families.
In most of these unsolved murder cases, the victims were senior citizens.
Dead-end
Investigations have reached a dead-end in the murders of H. Rajagopalachar (80), a retired teacher, stabbed to death in his house in Basaveshwaranagar police station limits in February 2002, and Keshava Prabhu (78), a retired Police Department employee, strangled to death in his house in Nandini Layout in March 2002.
Similarly, the police are yet to trace the killers of elderly women, Delucie Vaz, Nandini Rao, Sarai Bai, Thangammal, Subbarathnamma and Jayadevamma, who were stabbed to death in their houses in Cubbon Park, Ulsoor, Girinagar and K.R. Puram police station limits, respectively during 2002-06.
Uproar in Assembly
One such killing even led to an uproar in the Legislative Assembly.
The Opposition grilled the Government over the murder of G.N. Chandrashekar (65), a retired CSIR scientist, at his house in Subashnagar on Old Madras Road on July 25, 2001.
The assailants had slit Dr. Chandrashekar's throat, assaulted his wife, Padmaja, also a retired CSIR scientist, and took away Rs. 25,000 from the house.
The police had, as in some other unsolved murder cases, initially suspected it to be the handiwork of the Dandupalya gang.
This was because the crime had all the trappings of a typical Dandupalya gang operation such as slitting the throat, washing the weapons at the place of crime and assaulting those present at the scene.
Subsequently, the police ruled out the gang members as suspects as the description of the assailants by Ms. Padmaja did not match the profiles of any known member of the gang.
Panchagatti case
Another sensational double murder that rocked Bangalore this decade was that of the Panchagatti couple in November 2001.
Jawahar Panchagatti, a software engineer and son of former KPSC Chairman S.M. Panchagatti, and his wife, Anu, were found dead in their house in 3rd Stage, Banashankari.
The couple had suffered multiple stab wounds.
Though the house was ransacked, no valuables were missing. Documents and Anu's mangalsutra and ear rings were intact.
The assailants had not harmed the couple's adopted twin babies.
Although the police had initially claimed that they had definite clues and the motive could be sex, property, or revenge, investigations have remained inconclusive.
On the other hand, the police have closed the cases, including the double murder of Sadananda Shetty and his friend Vinod (Indiranagar, December 1999), Meena Rasquinha and her domestic help Prema Mary (Ashoknagar, May 2001), Shankaraiah and his daughter-in-law Padmaja (Vijayanagar, August 2001) and Nirmala and her daughter Rajeshwari, (Madivala, August 2002).
Police sources say that some murder investigations were stymied by lack of cooperation from the victims' families.
Referring to the murder of an engineering student in the South Division in 2006, the sources claimed that though the family members were aware of the assailant, they were not revealing the identity.
A close relative of the victim even threatened to commit suicide if investigations continued.
And in a double murder case, the family of the victims were evasive during interrogation.
If the victims or their family members are involved in any illegal or immoral activities, their relatives fear the family's reputation will bebesmirched if truth comes out.
Fearing social stigma, they do not cooperate with the police, the sources explained.
