HUBBALLI: The Hubballi police on Tuesday exhumed the body of a youth, who was murdered by hired killers on the instance of his own father, from a sugarcane field about 3 km from Kalaghatagi.
Bharat Jain, who has a business in construction material, was upset that his only son Akhil had fallen into bad ways and developed bad habits and would not even listen to his parents.
Due to this, Bharat had lost face in the community and was very upset. He then paid Rs 10 lakh as supari to Rehman Bijapur, Mahadev Nalwad and Saleem Salauddin to eliminate his son. The three agreed to carry out the task, but it was to be Bharat’s responsibility to bring Akhil to Kalaghatagi.
As per the plan, on December 1, Bharat went home for lunch along with Rehman. From there, he picked up Akhil saying that they had some orders to supply construction material for a dhaba on Kalaghatagi road and asked the son to accompany him. When they reached the sugarcane field, Bharat pointed to a partly built tin shed and said PoP work had to be done on it. The trio went into the shed, but Bharat came out, took his car and returned home.
The hired killers then attacked Akhil from behind, tied up his limbs, gagged him and killed him. They then sent a photo of the body to Bharat, left it in the sugarcane field and returned to Hubballi to claim the Rs 10 lakh that was promised. They then went back to the field with salt and some chemicals to that the smell from the body could be camouflaged.
Bharat, meanwhile, went to the police and lodged a missing person’s complaint. The Keshwapur police, who took up the investigation have since arrested Bharat Jain and the supari killers. A team led by Assistant Commissioner Ashok Teli, and DCPs Sahil Bagla and Gopal Byakod, visited the spot where the body was buried and sent it for post-mortem examination. Bharat Jain and the hired killers were also taken to the spot.
Addressing a press conference, Hubballi-Dharwad Police Commissioner Labhu Ram said, “The police have successfully cracked this difficult case. After a missing person’s complaint was lodged, some people had come to the police station and expressed their doubts. When we grilled the father, he admitted to the crime. So far, we have arrested seven people and seven others are being questioned. Bharat Jain had tried to mislead the investigation by giving conflicting statements. We will know about the exact reason for Bharat Jain getting rid of his son after the questioning is completed”.
The police are also investigating if there was any other reason for Bharat Jain handing over his own son to the supari killers. While Jain broke down in the police station, his wife had still not been informed of their son’s murder.