The city police seem to have finally cracked the case of the brutal killing of an hotelier from UP and his wife in Cottonpet in the city, with the arrest of two people. However, the main accused Karthik, whose real name is Syed Ali and hails from Bihar, is still at large. Hotelier Pavan Sharma and his wife Babita Devi were found murdered in their hotel and their five-year-old daughter Priya was found unconscious with grievous injuries on the head on August 1. Police had suspected the involvement of the hotel staff, which was later corroborated by Priya, indicating that a person known to the family had murdered the couple.
The arrested duo has been identified as Ramesh (26) from Mangalore and P.K Thammiah (24) from Virajpet taluk in Kogadu. The two, who frequented the hotel, had hatched the plot with Syed aka Karthik. They had noticed that the hotel was doing good business and also that the hotel staff used to change frequently, police said. The two, who were friends with Syed Ali, decided to rob the place and accordingly, Syed joined the hotel as a help a week earlier claiming that his name was Karthik. “The couple did not do any background check and hired him. During interrogation, the arrested duo confessed that the plan was to rob the hotel owners. However, their plan went awry when Karthik tried to molest Babita,” a senior police officer said.
Babita screamed and that woke up Pavan. The trio then attacked the couple and killed them. Hearing the scream, five-year-old Priya too woke up and tried to run outside when Karthik attacked her as well, the official added. Following this, Karthik deserted the two and ran away, and police suspect he may be in Bihar.
The arrested duo was picked from Cubbon Park where the two were hiding. After committing the crime, they had first fled to Pune, but returned to the city a few days back. They are now being questioned further by the police.