Mysore/Mysuru: An accused, who had allegedly murdered a man near Kergalli on Sept. 9, has been nabbed by the Police on Sept. 12 at K.R. Pet.

The deceased is Mahadeva (45), a resident of Kergalli village in Jayapura hobli and the accused has been identified as Afsar Pasha, 35, a resident of Kesare 7th Cross, who was nabbed within 24 hours of registering a case.

The accused was produced before a Magistrate, who remanded him to judicial custody.

Afsar, who was running a mutton shop at Kergalli was known to Mahadeva. He (Mahadeva) had got a loan of Rs. 1.50 lakh to Afsar from a private financier and had stood surety for it. As Afsar was not paying the interest timely, the private financier began to demand repayment of the loan amount from Mahadeva. Irked over it, Mahadeva began to pressurise Afsar to pay the interest or repay the loan amount. Unable to bear the pressure, Afsar hatched a plot to eliminate Mahadeva, which the Police came to know during interrogation.

On Sept. 9, Afsar called Mahadeva for a talk and took him to a farm near a bar on the outskirts of the village where both consumed liquor during which the loan issue came up and took an ugly turn. Afsar, who had brought a mutton chopper with him, allegedly murdered Mahadeva by slitting his throat and had gone absconding.

During investigation, the Police came to know that Afsar had called Mahadeva over the phone and when the Cops called the mobile phone of Afsar, it was switched off, which gave rise to suspicion. The Police, who tracked the mobile phone of Afsar through International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number, came to know that Afsar’s mobile phone was in Bengaluru. But within a few hours, the mobile phone of Afsar was tracked at K.R. Pet and the Police, who rushed to K.R. Pet, nabbed Afsar there, it is learnt.

In a bid to escape from Police, Afsar had removed the old SIM card and had put his wife’s SIM card to his mobile phone before fleeing from Mysuru.

On Sept. 9 at about 8 am, Mahadeva left his house and came near the bar. His wife Lakshmamma called him over the phone at about 10.30 am and asked him to come home for breakfast to which Mahadeva told her that that he had come to chop plantain leaves and breakfast would be provided there.

But after sometime, his wife again called him but the phone was not reachable. Assuming that Mahadeva had gone somewhere, Mahadeva’s family members waited for him till evening. As Mahadeva did not return home even after dark, the family members began to search for him but in vain. On Sept. 11 morning, Lakshmamma’s brother-in-law Gavisidda and son-in-law Ramu launched a search and found the body of Mahadeva near the farm belonging to one Basavegowda.

Jurisdictional Police, who rushed to the spot, conducted mahazar, registered a case based on the complaint from Lakshmamma and shifted the body to MMC&RI mortuary, where post-mortem was conducted and the body was handed over to the family members.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Seema Latkar, Additional SP Dr. Nandini and Dy.SP R. Sumeet guided Mysuru Rural Sub-Division Circle in-charge Inspector G.S. Swarna, Jayapura Sub-Inspector K.N. Suresh Bopanna and staff K. Ravikumar, Krishnashetty, K.S. Anand, M. Harish, Dastagir Saab Dhummadri, Mahadevaswamy and Arunesh in the nabbing operation.