11 years after woman was raped and murdered and her husband arrested, ex-banker arrested | News from India

BENGALURU: Eleven years after a 43-year-old woman was murdered and her husband was wrongly arrested for the crime and released due to lack of evidence, three men, including a former Canara Bank manager, have been arrested for gang raping and killing the woman.

The main accused and former bank manager Narasimha Murthy (65) and his accomplices Deepak C (38) and Hariprasad (45) are in custody. Charges were filed against them on Thursday.

The woman’s body was found on February 15, 2013, in Chikkajala, near Yelahanka. Her husband had earlier filed a missing person complaint. Then, Chikkajala Inspector M Paramesh arrested the husband on May 18, 2015, on the grounds that he had killed his wife in the house and disposed of the body. The reasoning: During investigation, blood stains were found in the couple’s apartment and a forensic examination revealed that these matched the victim’s blood.


The husband was released on bail after spending 73 days in judicial custody. He approached the Karnataka HC in September 2015 demanding a CID investigation and the case was transferred to the CID in October 2022.

DGP (CID) MA Saleem said they have conducted a scientific investigation into the case. “We found that the mobile number of a person – an associate of a family friend of the woman – was where the body was found. Also, an eyewitness who had seen the woman with the same friend shortly before her murder helped us find a new approach,” Saleem said.

The woman’s husband had worked at the bank branch where Murthy was a manager. Murthy had seen the woman often and was attracted to her. “Murthy planned to meet her near Hebbal bus stand. From there, he told her that he would show her his recreation club and took her there. As planned, he raped her. Deepak and Hariprasad also raped her and strangled her. Deepak and Hariprasad stuffed the body in a gunny sack and dumped it in Chikkajala,” said Narendra Babu MR, inspector, Crime Branch. “Murthy had repeatedly called Deepak to find out if they had dumped the body. Deepak did not pick the calls and Murthy then sent him an SMS,” the police officer said.