BANGALORE: An IT consultant with a multinational firm was arrested for his alleged involvement in the murder of a colleague, nearly five months after the crime was committed. The accused and his girlfriend had split and he suspected the victim was responsible for this by spreading canards against him.

The accused, Mandara Lingam, and his victim V Raja, both 26, were collegemates and also stayed together at the same PG facility in Kundalahalli, Whitefield. Both were from Chennai and had studied at Jaya College. They worked as IT consultants with Capgemini India, Whitefield.

Raja was found dead in his PG room in Kundalahalli on May 28. The body bore no injuries.

Lingam lodged a police complaint that he returned home from work with his two colleagues and roommates and found Raja dead. Police registered a case of unnatural death and suspected Raja had died of a heart attack.

But a postmortem on Raja's body revealed that he had suffered severe internal injuries. More tests were recommended and doctors concluded that he had died of head injuries. A report on this reached Mahadevapura police on October 8.

"Lingam was the first suspect right from the beginning. He was the last person to be seen with Raja before he was found dead. But Lingam went about his routine and made it appear that he, their two colleagues and PG mates found Raja dead in his room at the same time on May 28 morning. He even filed a complaint," said DCP (East) PS Harsha.

Lingam put up a façade of normalcy and behaved like he had nothing to do with the murder of his friend.

After ruling out all angles, police subjected Lingam to intensive questioning during which he broke down and confessed to have killed Raja. He said he was in love with a colleague but they split after Raja told her a lie that he was a womanizer.

