Prompt action helps police arrest three for murdering businessman in Uttara Kannada

Uttara Kannada District Police have arrested three men on the charge of killing a 58-year-old businessman in Hanakona village on Sunday.

Vinayak Naik was killed in his house.

The arrests were announced on Wednesday. Director-General of Police Alok Kumar also announced a reward of ₹1 lakh to the investigators who solved the case in four days.

The arrested men are 31-year-old Laksha Jyotinath of Assam, 24-year-old Ajmal Jabir and 23-year-old Masoom Manjar of Bihar.

Meanwhile, the prime accused in the crime, Guruprasad Rane, a relative of the wife of the deceased, was found dead in Goa. He is suspected to have ended his life. The body was recovered from the Mandovi river.

Guruprasad Rane, the police said, had instructed Laksha Jyotinath, his long-time employee, to kill Vinayak Naik.

Jyotinath committed the offence with the help of the other two accused who he hired for the purpose.

They cornered the victim in his house and hacked him to death. His wife also suffered injuries during the attack.

They went to Goa and reported the murder to Rane. He gave them ₹2 lakh and asked them to escape. But they were caught by the police in two days. It is suspected that Rane ended his life on Tuesday.

The arrested men revealed that the conspiracy was being hatched for over six months.

Meanwhile, the accused left the car used for the offence at a service centre at Ponda in Goa.

Superintendent of Police M. Narayan told reporters in Karwar on Wednesday that the reason for the murder was enmity.

Investigators found that the relationship between the deceased and his wife had soured. They were contemplating divorce. Their son, who is studying in the U.S., attended his father’s cremation.

On the insistence of the son, the police brought the woman to the cremation from the hospital, for a brief period.

The Superintendent of Police said that the investigating team ruled out an underworld connection to the murder and began connecting the clues.

Based on eyewitness accounts of a vehicle being used for the offence, the team went through records of over 2,000 vehicles using data from toll booths.

The vehicle was traced to belong to the Rane family of Goa.

Jyotinath, who was boarding a flight to Assam, was then apprehended. The details of his associates were collected from call records. They had escaped to Delhi. They were arrested with the assistance of the Delhi Police and the Railway Police.