The Kerala police are on the lookout for two children, aged six and four, who were abandoned in Bengaluru by a relative who killed their parents. The abandonment of the children was discovered after the Kerala police arrested T.K. Manjunath (40), a native of Tumakur, suspected to be behind the murders.
In order to cover up the murders, Manjunath is believed to have abandoned six-year-old Ayan and his four-year-old sister Amrutha on a Mumbai-bound train leaving from the KSR Railway Station in the first week of February.
The case came to light after a highly decomposed body of a woman was found in a well in the Iritty town of Kerala on January 21. There was a tattoo on the hand, which said ‘Raju’ in Kannada.
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Tangled story
Inquiries led to the arrest of Manjunath. While questioning him, the tangled story unfurled. Manjunath confessed to the murder of not only the woman, but also a man named Raju in 2015 in Tumakuru. Sub-Inspector of Iritty town A. Anshad said Manjunath was married. He had an affair with his niece Shobha. Her husband, Raju, became suspicious. On December 21, 2015, Manjunath and Shobha strangled him with a rope. The body was carried to the outskirts of Sira town and burnt. Without a complaint, and with no leads, the police closed the case.
Manjuath convinced Shobha to relocate with her two children — Ayan and Amrutha — to Iritty and promised them money to start life afresh. When Manjunath stopped visiting the family, Shobha threatened to expose him, the police said.
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Enraged Manjunath allegedly took Shobha to the Puzhayapalam village on January 21 and strangled her to death. He then took the children to Mysuru by bus to admit them in an orphanage. When the plan did not succeed, he took them to Bengaluru, where he left them on a train.