Bengaluru police have registered a First Information Report (FIR) against Arun Kumar Azad, the owner of internet service provider (ISP) firm GNet, in connection with the double murder of the CEO and MD of Aeronics Media Private Limited on Tuesday, July 11. The victims were Vinu Kumar, the CEO, and Phanindra Subramanya, the MD of the tech firm. The complaint filed by a staff member of Aeronics indicated that the killings were driven by business rivalry.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Northeast Laxmi Prasad told TNM that Arun Kumar was presently suspected of entering into a conspiracy with the three accused persons to kill Phanindra and an FIR was registered in light of this information. He said they were investigating whether there was a money trail and how many people were involved in the conspiracy. “Right now we are focused on making the arrests,” he said.
Laxmi Prasad revealed that the motive behind the murders was a longstanding rivalry linked to the victims' previous association with Arun. The police identified Shabarish a.k.a Felix as the main accused and the other two as Vinay Reddy and Santosh. The murder took place on Tuesday evening after Shabarish allegedly barged into the Aeronics office at Pampa Extension in Amruthahalli and attacked the victims using machetes. The three attackers were arrested in Kunigal, near Tumakuru, just a few hours after the crime took place.
According to the police, Phanindra and Vinu Kumar had previously worked with Arun Kumar at the latter’s company GNet before establishing their own company in November 2022. The relationship between Arun Kumar and the duo soured when Aeronics started gaining popularity and GNet’s clients shifted loyalties to Phanindra and Vinu Kumar’s new venture.
While Shabarish is an employee of Arun Kumar, Santosh, who also had a past association with Arun, quit his job two months ago. Reddy, a mutual friend of Shabarish and Santosh, informed the police that he accompanied them to provide "moral support."
Shabarish, who goes by @joker_felix_rapper on Instagram, posted a story on his account saying that he “hurts only bad people.” The story read, “This planet peoples always flatters and cheaters. So I hurt this planet peoples. I hurt only bad peoples. I never hurt any good people (sic).” Even after the murder, Felix shared a screenshot of the news of the murders with background music from the Kannada film KGF.