MANDYA: A woman school teacher in Melukote, who had gone missing, was found dead after three days under mysterious circumstances. It is suspected that some unidentified miscreants buried her body on a hill.
The deceased was identified as Deepika, a resident of Manikya village. She was a teacher at a private college. Deepika had left school in the afternoon on January 20, but did not return home. Her father Venkatesh filed a missing person’s complaint at Melukote police station the same evening.
Locals got suspicious after they saw eagles circling in the sky and foul smell coming from the top of a hill. Some miscreants had buried the body after the murder, police suspect. The teacher was quite active on social media through reels.
The husband of Deepika expressed suspicion over Nithish (22) from the same village. The husband Lokesh said, “Nitish was friends with Deepika and would call her his sister. He contacted her before she went missing. Before the murder, Deepika and Nitish were seen fighting atop a hill. Some tourists have recorded a 13-second video of the quarrel and given it to the police. But the police did not take it seriously. Following the video, Deepika’s two-wheeler was also found on the hill”.
The body was exhumed today in the presence of tahsildar and sent for post-mortem examination. Mandya SP Yatish visited the place and formed two special teams to search for the murderers.
The deceased’s husband, Lokesh, said, “She left home at 9 am on Saturday with her two-wheeler and she came out of the school at 12.06 pm. Her mobile was switched off at 1.30 pm. We had started searching for her when we realised she was missing. She would not stay away from my son and me even for an hour. Then, we filed a missing complaint that evening at the Melukote police station. Police found her two-wheeler near a hill, but did not find her. The police had registered the FIR at 6 pm, but did not continue searching. The police had shown negligence in tracing her and her location; they just delayed and ignored the case”.
Lokesh claimed, “We did not get a proper response from the police even after three days. I have suspicions about Nithish, who used to call her sister, and he is native of the same village. She got a call from him while on her way back home on that day and he has been absconding ever since. Nithish was doing some agriculture work. Now police have taken his father into custody”.