BENGALURU: At first police were not even sure it was a case of murder as all they had was a human skull, a jaw bone, a leg bone and a few clothes found on a desolate stretch near Chikkanahalli village of Doddaballapura taluk , Benglauru Rural district. These were discovered four months ago and it appeared cold from the start, but the scanty evidence proved enough for police to solve the mystery.On Thursday, police arrested a JCB operator for murdering his friend six months ago, hacking his body and scattering the remains in the wild. The skeletal and sartorial remains were found to be that of Shanta Kumar, 24, a resident of Aradeshahalli, near Devanahalli, and originally from Dandiganahalli in Tumakuru district, while his killer, Sridhar alias Shashi, is a resident of Chikkanahalli, near Doddaballapura. Sridhar confessed to killing Kumar on January 3, 2018 as he coveted Kumar’s wife.Doddabelavangala police in Doddaballapura taluk got wind of the case when they were alerted in mid-February by locals about the human skeletal remains and clothes near Chikkanahalli. The police collected all the remains and began scouring records for missing persons in their neighbourhood. Their efforts drew a blank and the case went into cold storage.Then, earlier this week, Ramanjinamma, a resident of Dandiganahalli in Tumakuru district, knocked on the doors of Doddabelavangala police station with a complaint that her son, Shanta Kumar, had gone missing since early January.According to her complaint, Kumar had eloped with a girl from his village, married her and they were living in Aradeshahalli. His friend, Sridhar, was also living with them, she said. Kumar and Sridhar worked as cooks and took joint assignments. She said she learnt from her daughter-in-law that Kumar was missing.Ramanjinamma produced a photograph of her son and remarkably, the shirt he had on in the photo resembled the shirt police had found with the skeletal remains nears Chikkanahalli. The tailor’s label on the shirt confirmed that it was Kumar’s.After Ramanjinamma told police that Kumar was close to Sridhar, police tracked him down and picked him up from Mysuru where he was working as a JCB operator.On interrogation, Sridhar admitted that he killed Kumar. Sridhar told police that he wanted to get Kumar out of the way and get close to his wife. He said he took Kumar to a desolate stretch on the outskirts of Chikkanahalli and hit him on the head with a boulder. Using a cooking knife, Sridhar hacked off Kumar’s head and threw the body parts around, hoping wild animals would consume them.Police said they have approached a local court seeking permission to conduct a DNA test to establish that the skull is indeed Kumar’s.