• Body found buried at the foot of Yoganarasimhaswamy Hill
• Video clip of a few people pulling around the teacher given to Police

Melukote: The body of a woman teacher, who had gone missing two days ago, was found buried at the foot of Yoganarasimhaswamy Hill at Melukote. The Police, who had initially registered a missing case, have now registered a murder case and are investigating.

The deceased teacher is Deepika (28), daughter of social worker Venkatesh of Manikyanahalli village, who was given in marriage to Lokesh of the same village. Deepika was working as a guest teacher at SET Public School at Melukote and used to travel to the school from her village in her two-wheeler.

On Saturday afternoon, Deepika, who left the school in her scooter, did not reach her home. It is said that she left the school after receiving a call on her cell phone. Meanwhile, Deepika’s scooter was found at the foot of the hill on the same day. Though her family members and relatives searched for her for a few hours, she was not found following which her father Venkatesh lodged a missing complaint at Melukote Police Station.

Suspecting that Deepika may have been murdered by miscreants, her family members and relatives had launched a search for her since Saturday. During the search, they found flies on a heap of mud about 500 mts from the spot where her scooter was found and when they cleared the mud, the body of Deepika was found.

Melukote Inspector Siddappa and staff, who reached the spot, excavated the body in the presence of Pandavapura Assistant Commissioner Nandish and Tahsildar Shreyas and shifted the body to Mandya’s MIMS Hospital for post-mortem. Superintendent of Police N. Yathish, Srirangapatna Dy.SP Murali and staff also visited the spot.

Video clip: A video clip of Deepika being waylaid and pulled around by a few people has been captured by a tourist, who has handed over the video clip to the Police. It is said that a group of three to four persons had murdered Deepika. Based on the information provided by tourists, Police rushed to the spot during which Deepika’s scooter was found, following which her father had lodged a missing complaint. It is learnt that after Deepika’s family members and relatives saw the video clip, they suspected that she may have been murdered and had launched a search in the vicinity of the spot where her scooter was found.

Meanwhile, Melukote CPI Siddappa, speaking to SOM, said that the video clip is about 10 seconds which is not clearly visible.