BENGALURU: A 38-year-old travel businessman allegedly shot his childhood friend to death in their village near

, on the outskirts of Bengaluru, on Monday night after the latter took objection to the former having an affair with his wife. He has been arrested.

Jigani police said

, 38, used his father’s licensed

to kill

, who drove his own mini goods tempo for livelihood.

Muniyappa’s father Venakataswamy, 55, cousin brother Krishnamurthy, 25, and Ramesh’s wife, Kalavathi, 24, also have been arrested. All the accused are residents of Sriramapura village.

According to police, Muniyappa gunned down Ramesh around 10:20pm.

Preliminary probe revealed that Muniyappa and Kalavathi had an affair and fled the village a year back. Muniyappa returned home a few months later but Kalavathi did not come back. Ramesh sought the village elders’ intervention to get his wife back. Kalavathi, however, approached a family court seeking divorce.

“Kalavathi did not wish to return to Ramesh's home and told him in writing. This led to frequent fights between Muniyappa and Ramesh,” a police officer said.

On Monday morning, Sriramapura villagers held a meeting to finalise Dasara celebrations. Muniyappa was in the forefront of the meeting and Ramesh ridiculed him, after which both had heated arguments. Around 10pm, Muniyappa found Ramesh walking in front of his residence and the duo fought again.

Muniyappa rushed back home, brought his father’s gun and shot Ramesh in the chest at pointblank range. Muniyappa and Krishnamurthy allegedly stopped villagers from rushing Ramnesh to hospital. They even threatened villagers at the gunpoint and warned them not to shift Ramesh to hospital.

Sriramapura villagers alerted Jigani police, who rushed to the spot and shifted the body. “We seized the gun and arrested the accused within hours from their village’s neighbourhood,” a police officer said.

Police have registered a case of

, criminal conspiracy and misuse of fire arms against the accused persons and further probe is underway.