An armed gang chased two men on Bengaluru’s streets and brutally hacked them to death with machetes in the early hours of Monday.
At around 12 am, a gangster from South Bengaluru – Manjunath alias Tamma Manja (27) and his friend, a realtor – Varun Reddy (24) were on their way home on a two-wheeler in the city’s JP Nagar area. While on their way, six to seven men in a Hyundai i10, began following them.
Manjunath began riding faster, however, when they reached the Axis Bank ATM located along 24th cross in Puttenahalli, the car rammed into his scooter.
Manjunath manoeuvred the scooter to avoid getting hit by the car and the two men fell off the vehicle. The car crashed into an electric pole, located on the pavement. The driver stopped the car and the assailants immediately got out of the car, JP Nagar police said.
One of the assailants fished out a knife and allegedly stabbed Varun Reddy to death. Manjunath, meanwhile, began running. The assailants chased him for 200m. When they reached Hotel Nandhini, the assailants caught Manjunath and hacked him with machetes on his head and torso, thereby killing him.
According to Deccan Herald, the car belongs to a businessman named Virabhadraiah, who had sold it to another man named Madhusoodan. Police have not been able to access the CCTV footage from the areas as the cameras were defunct. However, police suspect that Manjunath’s relatives, who are considered his rivals, could have contracted the killing.
Manjunath was a resident of Kanakapura and a rowdy-sheeter at the Thalaghattapura and Kumaraswamy Layout police stations, the DH report added. Varun Reddy, on the other hand, was a resident of BTM Layout and helped his father in his real estate business.
According to Bangalore Mirror, police suspects that Manjunatha was accused of killing T-Block Raghu and has also been listed as an accused in another attempted murder case.