By Express News Service

KOCHI: For the past 15 years and eight months, a father has been pursuing the murder case of his daughter hoping to bring the murderer to justice. Finally, his long wait has come to an end after a special team from Ahmedabad nabbed his daughter’s husband, identified as Tarun Kumar Jinaraj from Bengaluru, on charges of murdering his wife Sajini. All these years, Tarun Kumar had been hiding from the police by assuming a new identity and name as Pravin Bhateley and living a luxurious life in Bengaluru along with his new wife Nisha and two children.

It was on February 14, 2003, O K Krishnan, settled in Ahmedabad, received a call from his son-in law Tarun Kumar. He informed Krishnan that something had happened to his daughter Sajini. On reaching the daughter’s house, Krishnan found that she was strangled to death with her dupatta. Tarun had plotted a robbery scene at the house to give the impression that the crime was committed by a robbery gang. But, in the due course of the probe, the police collected incriminating evidence, pointing fingers at Tarun as the main accused. However, Tarun escaped from the spot by giving a slip to all. He changed his identity to Pravin Bhateley, which he stole from an old friend who lived in Mandsaur, and shifted to Bengaluru to work in Oracle, drawing a hefty salary.

“We thought that the probe had lost its steam. We have been following it up with the authorities concerned for the last three years. All senior police officers were very supportive. Now we are really happy that the police have arrested him. We hope the court will award him capital punishment for committing the brutal crime,” Krishnan told Express. Krishnan and his wife Ramani are Thrissur natives, but have been settled in Ahmedabad for several years. Tarun’s parents also hailed from Kerala and were settled in Bhopal. Sajini was working in a bank when she got married to Tarun on November 15, 2002. The parents never suspected any issues in their marital life, though there were rumors that Tarun had an affair with another girl.

“We are thankful to Joint Commissioner of Police A K Sharma, DCP Himanshu Shukla and DCP Deepan Bhadran, a Malayali officer,” Krishnan said. It was Deepan Bhadran and his team that successfully traced Tarun to Bengaluru. As per reports, Ahmedabad police had been tracking calls on Tarun’s mother Annamma’s phone number for all these days before zeroing in on to the Oracle’s office in Bengaluru where Tarun was working.