Mysuru: The First Additional District and Sessions Court has sentenced a 24-year-old youth to rigorous life imprisonment for murdering a daily wage worker. He is also facing four separate murder charges. The youth, identified as Kaiser, a resident of Shantinagar in the city had the habit of robbing beggars and the homeless.

Kaiser, an uneducated, was addicted to drugs and substance like eraser and other harmful solutions. Scouting money to continue his vices, he had killed Basavashetty, a daily wage worker in 2012 for Rs. 50.

Basavashetty hailed from Gundlupet, Chamarajanagar district and Kaiser had smashed his head with a boulder on Irwin Road under Lashkar Police limits. Basavashetty travelled regularly from Gundlupet for work and but often slept on the city’s footpaths when he had no work.

On August 20, 2012, when Basavashetty was sleeping on a footpath of a crossroad on Irwin Road in front of a hotel, Kaiser tried to rob him of his cash at 3 am. When Basavashetty tried to fight him off, Kaiser punched him before killing him on the spot by smashing his head with a boulder. He later searched Basavashetty’s pockets and took away Rs. 50.

During investigations, the Lashkar Police found that Kaiser had a habit of searching pockets and belongings of people sleeping on footpaths and his usual targets were beggars, homeless and daily wage workers who sleep on roadsides.

Sentencing Kaiser to rigorous life imprisonment, Judge N. Krishnaiah has ordered the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) to provide compensation to Basavashetty’s wife Siddamma as per provisions of Karnataka Victims’ Compensation Scheme.

Public Prosecutor Ajith Kumar D. Hamigi had argued on behalf of State.

FOUR OTHER VICTIMS INCLUDING A WOMAN

During the course of investigations, the Police stumbled upon more cases and in all, Kaiser had committed five murders. He had killed two persons in Lashkar limits and one case each in Mandi, Udayagiri and V.V. Puram Police limits. He has been convicted in one case (that of Basavashetty) and trial cases were under progress at various other Courts.

Under the Udayagiri Police limits, Kaiser had killed a sex worker who was known to him. Once he had taken her in an auto rickshaw at around 12.30 am near a petrol bunk on Mahadevapura Road. He had sex with her near a culvert and when she demanded money, Kaiser smashed her head with a stone and fled the spot before removing her wrist watch.