Bengaluru, 6 November

Bengaluru cab driver Indushekar alias Shekhar has been arrested after brutally killed his wife, Sunita, and six of their family members with a grinding stone, in what the Home Minister has described as a “meticulously planned murder”.

After each murder, he washed blood stains at home and cleaned the rubbu gundi using chemicals to destroy evidence. 

The other deceased are his mother-in-law Rupavathi; Shivakumar and Shankar, his brothers-in-law; Divya and Nalini, the wives of Shivakumar and Shankar respectively; and Shivakumar and Divya's seven-year-old son Puneeth. It was only after Nalini’s mother filed a missing persons’ complaint on 3 November that investigation began and he was subsequently apprehended. 

Detailing the suspected sequence of events, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) for the North Division of Bengaluru City, BS Nemagowda told Salar News that Shekhar first killed Sunita with the grinding stone as frequent quarrels had broken out over her frequent visits to her paternal home. 

Shekhar did not like this and had imposed restrictions on her to prevent her from visiting.  Even after several mediation attempts, the dispute did not end. Believing that his wife's family was an obstacle to his life, he hatched a conspiracy to kill them.

The following day, he invited Shivakumar and Shankar to his house for a liquor party and killed them too with the grinding stone. 

Subsequently, he invited Divya and Nalini over for lunch, killed them, tied the bodies in sacks, put them in his car and dumped them at the foothills of Nandi Hills.

He then murdered Rupavathi and Puneeth in the same manner and dumped their bodies somewhere. 

HOW HE GOT CAUGHT 

After the missing persons’ complaint was filed, Shekar gave police contradictory statements and even failed to appear for questioning despite notices.

Suspecting foul play, police examined mobile tower dump data and traced the location of Nalini’s mobile. The location showed accused Shekar’s house address near Bhashyam Circle. Police immediately rushed to the spot.

But he had kept the mobile phones of his victims on him, which helped the police nab him, officials said. 

He was finally taken into custody near Halasuru Gate. 

‘CAREFULLY PLANNED’

“This was not some stray incident. It was an act carried out by an individual who appears to have meticulously planned the murders of his own relatives," Home Minister Priyank Kharge told reporters.

The police have seized the car allegedly used to transport the bodies and the grinding stone suspected to have been used in the murders. The accused had allegedly disposed of bodies at different locations, including Nandi Hills and Charmadi Ghat in coastal Karnataka.

"Whether it (murders) were related to property or whether he was mentally unwell is yet to be established,” Priyank noted.