Solving Crime: A missing ‘Rakhi brother’, a haunted dream, and several cut-like wounds: How Bengaluru cops cracked a couple’s murder

The year was 2010. Following the global recession in 2008, the IT capital of Bengaluru was bouncing back, attracting people who desired a better life. Amrith Roy and his wife Janaki were one such couple. They had moved from Darjeeling in West Bengal to Bengaluru, hoping to build their lives in the city. However, a police investigation into an unidentified dead body on the roadside revealed how their dreams met with a tragic end on a single night.

It took the police 14 days to arrest the couple’s killers and it was the conspicuous absence of a ‘Rakhi brother’ at Amrith and Janaki’s cremation, the presence of several cut wounds on the hands of their friends, and a haunted dream that saw the police crack the case.

A dead body on the roadside

On February 9, 2010, the then Bengaluru police commissioner was on his way to inaugurate the new Mico Layout police station building. Officials from other police stations were also invited. L Y Rajesh, the then HSR Layout police inspector, was also at the station. Appreciation letters were being handed out to some police personnel who had done their job well and Rajesh was waiting for his turn when he got a call. An unidentified body had been found near Agara Lake.

“The moment I got the call, I skipped the programme and headed towards the spot. When we turned the dead body, we found that the man’s throat was slit. A Fiat car was parked a few yards away from the body. We went to remove the vehicle but found blood stains in the driver’s seat. So it became clear that the deceased had come in the same car. His identity was not known though,” Rajesh recalled.

As the police started their investigation, they checked the car’s registration number. It belonged to a man from Koramangala. Then Police Sub-Inspector (PSI) Mirza Ali Raja brought him in for questioning. The man said that he had sold the car four months ago to his house help Janaki.

“It was clear that Janaki and the deceased had links but the car seller did not have any idea where she stayed. We asked if she had any male friend or husband but the car seller did not know. He said he had sold the vehicle for cheap,” a police officer said.

Another body – and a gaffe

The police looked into Janaki’s whereabouts and found that she was married to Amrith Roy, who worked as an office assistant, and the couple stayed in a rented house in Bellandur. “We sent a police constable to check. He went to the house but the door was closed. With no clarity as to what had occurred, many theories were being floated. One was the possibility that Janaki had a boyfriend who killed Roy and fled. Meanwhile, her mobile phone was also switched off,” Rajesh said.

The police found out that Roy worked in a private firm in Koramangala. “We got his contact number but the number was switched off,” Rajesh added.

Left with no clues to pursue, the police decided to break open the door of Roy and Janaki’s house. But when they reached the spot, they were in for a shock. “PSI Mirza, a constable and I went to the house at around 7 pm. There was a power cut. When we went to break open the door, we pushed it – and it opened. In fact, the door had not been locked…the constable had just not checked it properly,” Rajesh said.

Using a torch, Mirza entered the house but walked out quickly. He had found the body of a woman inside the house, which had been ransacked. After checking with nearby residents, the police confirmed that it was Janaki. Her throat too had been slit.

As the news of the double murder spread, the police came under severe pressure.

“When the media trial began, senior officials thought the case should be handed over to the Central Crime Branch (CCB). We were racing against time and then deputy commissioner of police B N S Reddy also directed us to speed up the investigation,” a police officer said.

“Neighbours said Roy and Janaki did not have any disputes. They also said that they did not have a child but Roy had a craze for cars and bikes. He had bought the car even though Janaki worked as a housemaid and he worked as an office boy,” the officer added.

Investigation gathers pace

The police decided to check the call detail records (CDR) of the people that Roy had spoken to in the 48 hours before his murder and started questioning them.

At the same time, Roy’s mobile number was activated somewhere near Kunigal, 70 km away from Bengaluru. “I was so relieved that the number got activated, and more importantly, the location showed the person heading towards Bengaluru. We felt that we had cracked the case,” said Rajesh.

Posing as a woman, a police officer contacted the SIM card user who agreed to meet the ‘woman’. However, the police were in for disappointment.

“He revealed that he had found the SIM card somewhere near Agara. When he inserted the SIM card into his phone, he found that it had a cash balance. He then used the SIM card to call his friends and thought he would dispose of it later. After interrogation, we found that he was nowhere connected to the crime,” a police officer said.

A ‘Rakhi brother’ skips a cremation

By then, Janaki’s brother Santosh, who had travelled to Bengaluru, identified the bodies. Roy was an orphan and used to work with Janaki’s family members in Darjeeling, the police learnt. The family liked Roy and Janaki was married to him. In 2007, the couple shifted to Bengaluru. They were financially stable, the police said, and Roy was a money lender who aspired to buy land in Bengaluru.

While identifying the body, Santosh said that Roy used to wear a gold chain and gold ring which were missing. Asked about his friend circle, Santosh named Pradeep Chathri, saying that he was close to the family and he had even tied a rakhi to Janaki.

This information made the police suspicious. Pradeep, a hairdresser, was conspicuous by his absence. He did not even attend the couple’s cremation. The police went in search of Pradeep, who was a resident of Viveknagar, and found that he had vacated the house and had shifted to BTM Layout. Upon reaching the place, the police found that Pradeep was not in town.

The police brought Pradeep’s friends – Santosh Chathri, 30, and Preetham Thamang, 19, who hailed from Darjeeling; and Vivek, 22, who hailed from Assam – in for questioning. The police noticed that all three had minor cut-like wounds on their hands. When questioned, each of them came up with separate stories of falling from the bike, falling from the stairs etc.

“We did not buy their stories because the wounds were cut wounds and looked fresh. We started questioning them separately. First, Santosh broke into tears and confessed. Later, all of them confessed to the crime,” Rajesh said.

After a haunted dream, a suspect returns

The police had solved the case but their prime suspect, Pradeep Chathri, was still absconding.

On February 26, 2010, the police had a stroke of luck. Pradeep, who had fled to Chennai to take a train to Assam, returned to Bengaluru to collect some money. One of Roy’s friends alerted the police.

“He had gone to Chennai and had boarded a train to Assam but then something happened. According to him, Janaki started appearing in his dreams, questioning why she was killed. Pradeep believed in spirits and was terrified. He decided to return but jumped from a running train and injured himself. If he had managed to reach Assam, it would have been tough for us to nab him,” Rajesh recalled.

During questioning, the accused revealed what drove them to commit murder, the police said. The accused were allegedly jealous of Roy’s lifestyle. Roy had spoken about setting up a new business and buying a new plot in Bengaluru and had also shared that he had kept Rs 20 lakh aside for the same. Believing Roy, the accused decided to abduct and extort money from him, the police said.

On February 8, 2010, Pradeep and his friends visited Roy and Janaki. They had food and spent some time with the couple. After a while, Pradeep asked Roy to drop them back in his car. While returning, pretending to attend nature’s call, Pradeep and Santosh stepped out of the car, held a knife to Roy’s neck, and demanded money from him. In the melee, the accused slit Roy’s neck and he died, the police said.

The accused knew that Janaki would inform the police so they returned to her house in an autorickshaw. They entered the house telling her that the police had caught Roy and wanted to see his driving licence, the police said. When Janaki went in to check, the accused allegedly attacked her from behind and slit her throat. In the scuffle, the accused suffered cuts on their hands.

‘Not entitled to any lenient view’

The HSR Layout police, who had investigated the case, filed a chargesheet before the 14th fast-track court with the statements of 34 witnesses and 46 pieces of evidence, including a knife, a gold chain and other materials.

On September 16, 2014, the court sentenced all accused to life imprisonment. “Looking at the facts and circumstances of the present case, accused are not entitled for any lenient view and prayed for imposing deterrent punishment against the accused,” Judge Shivaji Anant Nalawade said in the order

Rajesh, who is presently a deputy superintendent of police in the Lokayukta, recalls that it was only the police who pursued the case. After the cremation, neither Janaki and Roy’s family nor their friends followed up on the investigation. “It was only the police who were committed to follow up the case with determination to ensure justice,” he said.

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