Kasaragod missing teacher's body found in beach, colleague held for drowning her

A week after 44-year-old BK Roopsree’s body washed up on a beach in Kasargod district, police have arrested her colleague Venkitaramana Karanthare and his driver Niranjan for allegedly murdering her. 

Venkitaramana taught drawing at the SV Higher Secondary School in Miyapadavu, where Roopasree too was a teacher. 

Roopasree went missing from her house in Miyapadavi, near Neerchal in Kasaragod on January 16. Her relatives who had filed a missing complaint at the Manjeshwaram police station on Sunday evening alleged that she had been facing harassment from a colleague. 

Three days later, on January 18, Roopasree’s body washed up at the Koyipadi beach near Kumbla. The decomposed body washed up with just the inner wear and without hair on the head.  

Although the police initially suspected it to be a case of suicide, it has now been established as  murder. 

“We believe that Venkitaramana, with the help of his driver, held her head in a bucket of water in his bathroom on 16th and killed her. They then dumped her body in the sea,” an officer involved in the investigations told TNM. 

According to the Kasaragod police, Venkitaramana had been harassing the woman for sometime. On the day of her murder, Roopasree is believed to have visited Venkitaramana’s house where she was drowned. 

The case is now being investigated by a DYSP rank officer. The accused along with his driver have been booked under section 302 (murder) and arrested by the police.