An elderly man’s murder case and a case of blackmailing women

Bengaluru/Mysuru: Two persons have been arrested in Mysuru by the Bengaluru Police in connection with two separate crimes that took place in the State Capital.

While in one case, a 20-year-old youth, a college dropout, was arrested from Kuvempunagar along with his friend from Hassan for the alleged murder of his grandfather, in another case, a 30-year-old youth from T. Narasipur, an employee of a private firm, for allegedly recording videos of relatives and friends with a spy camera and blackmailing them for sexual favours.

The Yelahanka Police arrested 20-year-old Jayanth alias Balle from Kuvempunagar in Mysuru, and his associate 22-year-old Yaseen, from Gorur in Hassan district on charges of murdering 70-year-old C. Puttaiah, Jayanth’s grandfather.

Puttaiah was a retired lab assistant of Kendriya Vidyalaya and a resident of 6th Cross, Surabhi Layout. Though Puttaiah had four sons, he lived alone after his wife’s death in 2017 and his children used to visit him often. 

Business loan surety

According to the Police, Jayanth wanted to start a business and desperately needed money and was planning to apply for a business loan. He sought help from his grandfather Puttaiah, for a share of their ancestral property for the required surety for the business loan.

However, Puttaiah did not entertain Jayanth’s desperate pleas and refused to divide his property among his four children due to some differences. Jayanth later plotted to kill his grandfather and sought the help of Yaseen. Jayanth’s father P. Chandru is the second son of Puttaiah.

An insider job

On the intervening night of Aug. 16 and 17, Jayanth and his friend gained entry to Puttaiah’s house and bludgeoned Puttaiah to death. They removed the gold ring of the deceased and ransacked the house to make the crime appear like murder for gain. After the crime, Jayanth and his friend fled from the back door.

On Aug. 17 morning, Puttaiah’s neighbours noticed that Puttaiah was not to be seen as his usual routine. He daily opened the main door of his house without fail. The neighbours immediately informed Puttaiah’s son Naveen who resides in K.S. Layout.

As the front door was locked, Naveen entered through the back door and found his father in a pool of blood in the bedroom and called the Police. The Police later scanned the CCTV footage from the neighbouring areas and zeroed in on Jayanth on Aug. 20. From the beginning, the Police knew it was an insider’s job.

According to Anoop A. Shetty, DCP (Bengaluru Northeast), Jayanth had visited Puttaiah’s house on Aug. 16 and fought with him for a share in the property. He also demanded Puttaiah to stand as a surety for the bank loan to start his business. As Puttaiah turned down both his demands, Jayanth teamed up with his friend to kill his grandfather.

“During interrogation, Jayanth that he and Yaseen first attacked Puttaiah before smothering him with a pillow. To make it look like murder for gain, they hid Puttaiah’s finger rings in the wardrobe,” the DCP told reporters.

Man arrested for blackmail

In the second case, the Bengaluru Northeast division of Cybercrime Police headed by Inspector Santosh Ram and his team arrested 30-year-old V. Mahesh for recording private moments of his relatives & friends on spycam and later blackmailing them for sexual favours.

Mahesh, a native of T. Narasipur and an employee of a private firm, used to visit the houses of his relatives and friends and place the USB-type camera in their bedrooms and bathrooms. The Police have recovered a laptop, memory cards and USB charger-type hidden camera from him and he has been charged under the provisions of the Information Technology Act and with IPC Sections for blackmail and sexual harassment.

One of the victims had lodged a complaint with the Cybercrime Police in this regard. The victim told the Police that a person, in possession of her private moments, was seeking sexual favours and blackmailed her and threatened to release the recorded video clips on social media.

The Police also found many other video clips recorded by the accused with which he was blackmailing the victims. “No one had filed complaints due to social stigma. The accused would only target his relatives and friends. He would visit their houses often and place the USB in the bedroom and bathroom to record the videos. Later, he would contact the victims on their social media accounts with fake identities and blackmail them,” DCP Anoop A. Shetty told reporters.