How cops probed

BENGALURU: Seven city youths who sought to round off their 24-hour pub crawl with a party in the lap of nature at Nandi Hills recently, ended up in a bloody squabble: Six of them allegedly ganged up and beat the seventh to death.Doddaballapura Rural police arrested the six suspects for allegedly murdering Vinuprasad Nagappa Hegde, 32, who worked as a software engineer with ITC Infotech near Fraser Town and lived in a PG accommodation in the east Bengaluru locality.According to police, Hegde, from Honnavar in Uttar Kannada district, owed Rs 5,000 to one of his alleged killers and arguments over the same cost him his life.The arrested accused are Melwin Raj of Banaswadi; Ravi B alias Koti of Kaval Byrasandra; Nikhil Kumar of Gandarajapura near Doddaballapura; Vighnesh S of KJ Nagar; Kushal N of Kamakshi Layout and S Mohan of Kaval Byrasandra, all aged between 23 and 28 and employees in private firms.Preliminary probe revealed Hegde and Melwin met in a bar at Banaswadi a year ago and became friends. Later, Melwin introduced his friends to Hegde and all of them used to party together during weekends. Hegde had borrowed Rs 5,000 from Melwin 15 days ago and hadn’t returned it even though the latter had repeatedly asked him for the money.The seven bar buddies met around noon on January 11 at Banaswadi and went on a drinking binge at various pubs and bars inside and outside Bengaluru. The next morning, they decided to have a party close to Nandi Hills.They reached Channagiri near Nandi Hills in two bikes and an autorickshaw. They found an open well in the area and decided to take the plunge.“When the entire gang was in the water, Melwin again asked Hegde to return his money. The duo began arguing. Melwin and the others pushed Hegde into the water and later brought him out of the well. Then they beat up Hegde to death with logs and fled the scene,” an investigating officer said.Channagiri villagers found Hegde’s body and informed police. Doddaballapura Rural cops took up a case of murder . “The victim was found only in his underwear. There was no clue about his identity,” the officer said.A team comprising deputy superintendent of police (Doddaballapura sub-division) T Rangappa, circle inspector Raghava S Gowda and sub-inspector V Gajendra, began sifting through mobile tower data to find out the phones that were operational in the area before the body was found.Once they narrowed down on suspect mobile phone numbers, they analysed CCTV footage for vehicles heading towards Channagiri. “We finally traced the accused, who confessed to the crime and revealed the victim’s identity. Hegde’s relatives had filed a missing person case with Pulakeshinagar police on January 15. They identified his body,” an officer said.