It matches a plot from a crime novel. A car theft in Karnataka led investigators to not only crack an interstate racket involving vehicle lifters but also solve a two-year-old double-murder in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.
In June 2017, the Magadi police began their investigation on a case of car theft suspecting the hand of an interstate racket of vehicle lifters.
The Times of India reported that a complaint was filed with Magadi police on June 16 after an SUV (Mahindra Bolero) was stolen using a duplicate key.
A special team led by DySP ML Purushottam was tasked to solve the case.
Following investigations, the team arrested a Magadi-based cab driver Abhishek Srinivas who was known to frequent duplicate key makers in the recent past.
On interrogation, Abhishek confessed that he along with two others from Andhra Pradesh had stolen the car and sold it to Shakti Arasan Ramanathan, a man based at Krishnagiri in Tamil Nadu.
Police then detained Shakti upon reaching Krishnagiri and found out that he had resold the vehicle forging the documents.
Sensing that Shakti was a regular in trading stolen vehicles, police questioned him.
Upon interrogation, Shakti revealed that he had also sold a stolen Tata Safari in 2015.
Spilling the beans on that theft, Shakti told the police that Naveen Sharavanan and Pruthvi Shyam Nagabhushan alias Palla had sold him the stolen Tata Safari first.
Going through records in the Transport Department, police found that the car belonged to one Narayanaswamy from Andhra Pradesh who was killed brutally in 2015 along with his girlfriend.
Pruthvi and Naveen were among the five vehicle thieves arrested in Bengaluru recently. Police said that the two allegedly confessed to killing Narayanaswamy and his girlfriend Mekha Kalpana in August 2015 in Hindupura. Following the murder, the duo then made away with the vehicle.
"Among the arrested, Naveen and Pruthvishyam committed the double murder of the president of a backward class group (Narayanaswamy) and his lover at Hindupur in Andhra Pradesh in August 2015. The murder was over an old rivalry. After the murder, the accused took away the SUV of Narayanaswamy and sold it to Arasan," B Ramesh, Ramanagara SP told Bangalore Mirror.