Alert night beat police helped prevent a gang of four men from carrying out a contract killing on Thursday. The accused were allegedly promised ₹5 lakh by the wife of the intended victim and her employer, with whom she was allegedly having an affair, to commit the murder and make it look like a a robbery.
The arrested gang members have been identified as Muniraju, 24, Shashi Kumar, 30, Prabhu Shankar, 28, and Kiran ,38, all residents of Thyamagondlu in Nelamangala.
The police later arrested the intended victim’s wife and her employer.
“On Thursday night, the beat police on duty saw four men on Tumakuru Road acting suspiciously. On a hunch, the police nabbed them and took them into custody. A search revealed that they were armed with weapons and ₹30,000 in cash,” said a police officer.
When questioned, the gang claimed that Chaitra, 28, and Kalpkumar Jain, 26, had taken out a supari on her husband, Girish.
“Further inquiries revealed that Chaitra worked as an office assistant to Jain who ran an automobile business in Nelamangala. The two started having an affair and Girish who suspected this told Chaitra to quit her job. She discussed it with Jain and the duo decided to eliminate Girish,” the police officer added.
Jain assigned his driver, Prabhu, [one of the four gang members who was arrested] and paid him ₹3 lakh in advance. “Girish has a criminal background. The gang was following Girish when they were arrested,” said the police.
When questioned, Chaitra reportedly confessed to the crime. Both Chaitra and Jain were booked for attempt to murder and conspiracy among other sections of the Indian Penal Code.
High Court accepts settlement of dispute and quashes criminal case against Kalpkumar and Chaitra
Jain, who was arraigned as accused number-1, and Chaitra, who was arraigned as accused number 6, had in February 2022 filed separate petitions before the High Court of Karnataka questioning the criminal case registered against them.
The High Court, in an order passed on June 27, 2022, has disposed of their petitions and has ‘terminated the criminal proceedings’ against Jain and Chaitra following the settlement of their dispute with the complainant, Girish N, who is the husband of Chaitra.
As Jain, Girish and Chaitra, parties to the lis, had filed a joint memo along with their respective affidavit of settlement of the dispute between them, the High Court said that it had to verify the nature of injuries suffered by Girish to qualify for acceptance of settlement of the criminal case in terms of the apex court’s guideline as Section 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code was invoked against all the six accused persons, including the two petitioners.
On verification, the High Court noted that there is no hindrance to accept the settlement between the petitioners and the complainant as the nature of injury suffered by the complainant, Girish, were “simple in nature” as per the medical certificate, which also indicated that complaint had suffered only “abrasion over left hand and pain over right arm.”
“In the light of the facts narrated herein above, the wound certificate and the complainant [Girish] making his wife as accused for the purpose that she was working in the company to which accused number-1 [Kalpkumar Jain] was the Managing Director and they had a squabble for his wife’s employment, I deem it appropriate to terminate the proceedings only insofar as the petitioners i.e., accused number-1 and 6 are concerned accepting the settlement,” the Justice M. Nagaprasanna observed in the order.
The Court also noted that the fact narrated in the complaint was that there a squabble between the wife and the husband, the complainant, who appear to have a dispute with regard to his wife working under Jain; and this had lead to the complainant visiting the place of work of Jain, and his wife, where altercations lead to exchange of fist blows between accused number-2 to 5 and the complainant.
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(The above article has been edited in 2023 to reflect the outcome of the Karnataka High Court order that terminated the criminal proceedings against Mr. Kalpakumar and Ms. Chaithra following the settlement of their dispute with the complainant N. Girish, who is the husband of Ms. Chaithra.)
