It took nearly 200 policemen and weeks of fine-comb investigation to crack the high-profile murder case of senior KAS officer S. P. Mahantesh (48). On Wednesday, the police arrested four youths, including the of the Sahakarnagar Co-operative Society, who is said to be the prime accused.

The police have identified the accused as Kiran Kumar (23), the accountant and resident of Sanjeevnagar, Ayyappa (24), resident of Vyalikaval, Murali (29) of Malleswaram and Shiva Kumar (28) of Samangiramnagar. Ayyappa works as a taxi driver, Murali as a generator operator and Shiva Kumar, an autorickshaw driver. Kiran Kumar confessed to the police that he misappropriated `20-25 lakh of the co-operative society’s money.

He feared that the misappropriation would come to light during the annual auditing done by Mr Mahantesh, the deputy director of Karnataka Co-operative Societies’ audit department, and so conspired with his three friends who had also profited from the theft, to kill Mr Mahantesh.

City Police Commissioner Jyothi Prakash Mirji said, “The main accused, Kiran, had secured the job of a accountant at the Sahakarnagar Co-operative Society on compassionate grounds after the death of his father Srikanth Bhat. He has been working since the last four years and was addicted to gambling and drinking along with the other three accused who are said to be his close friends. All the accused solicited women and frequently visited Goa . He started misappropriating funds of the society for these bad habits and spent it along with his friends.”

No threat calls to Mahantesh
“Another accused is absconding and efforts are being made to arrest him. The main accused paying ‘supari’ to contract killers has been ruled out as the three accused are his close friends. There is no enmity between the accused and the deceased,” said Mr Mirji. The KAS officer had not received any threats from the accused, the commissioner said. Detailed investigations would be carried out to ascertain if any other office-bearers of the Society were behind the misappropriation, he added. “Details about the exact value of misappropriation are yet to be probed. The roles of an assistant commissioner of police, IAS officer, MLA and another KAS officer behind the murder is ruled out but investigations are still on,” Mr Mirji said.

How Kiran was finally caught
“There were hardly any clues in the initial stages and nearly 200 policemen investigated the case. It took a systematic investigation and technical skills to crack the case,” he said. A police officer who was part of the investigation said mobile matching technique was used to crack the case. “Policemen went through the call details of all the tower locations from Sahakarnagar to Atria Hotel on May 15 and found calls being made and received from one particular mobile number from the Sahakarnagar Co-operative Society. The mobile phone number belonged to Kiran. It took nearly 10- 12 days for the police to zero in on the number.

“After police identified Kiran, they learnt that he was given notice by the Society to settle the misappropriated funds within three months. It was also found that he was not regularly coming to work. At the same time the Karnataka Co-operative Societies’ audit department sent Mahantesh for the routine annual auditing. After the murder, Kiran had had gone missing until he was arrested in the city. Based on his confession, the other three accused were arrested in the city.”

Family relieved truth is out
News that police arrested those involved in the murder of Mahantesh came as a relief to his family, who were upset about the way the investigation was proceeding initially and the aspersions cast on his character. The family felt that Mr. Mahantesh’s character was besmeared in the process of solving the case. Mr Mahantesh’s father Mr Puttannaiah said, “I have lost my only son and will have to bear the pain in my old age. Losing one’s child before your own eyes is very painful. I will have to live with that fact as long as I am alive. I am thankful to the police that they have solved the case efficiently and have given my son a clean chit. The truth has come out and the accused have been arrested.”

Velu Lahari, said that Mahantesh was a childhood friend and though his family can never come to terms with his death, it’s a relief that the truth has come out. Mr Mahantesh’s younger sister Shailaja said, “Ours was a very close-knit family. Mahantesh’s wife Purnima and his two young daughters Ragini and Deepika will never be able to come to terms with what has happened. But we are at least satisfied that the culprits did not get away and the truth is out.”