Just days after a shocking murder on the highway near Nelamangala, another broad daylight murder was reported on the Kolar highway on the outskirts of the city on Saturday. Both the murders are similar. In the previous killing, a gang of nearly 40 assailants blocked rowdy BEML Krishnappa’s motorcade, pulled him out of his SUV and hacked him to death. On Saturday, 36-year-old rowdy Mohan’s SUV was attacked by assailants who were in a lorry. They rammed their vehicle into Mohan’s SUV, turned it upside down and hacked him to death at 10.30 am.
Mohan, who was driving the car, was heading from Malur to Shidlaghatta in his Ford Endeavour (bearing registration number KA-37, MD-1) and the assailants were tailing him in the lorry. Near Theniyuru village, they crashed into the SUV. When the SUV toppled, the assailants broke open windshield and attacked Mohan with lethal weapons. Mohan did not even have time to move and was found dead in the driver’s seat. The accused escaped in the same lorry and abandoned it near Janga-makote, the police said.
Some of the villagers, who thought it was an accident, rushed to the spot, but were threatened by the assailants. It is said that two assailants hacked Mohan to death. But the police doubted the theory, saying it was not possible for two people to carry out such brutal attacks, the police said. Mohan was the main accused in the murders of brothers Manjunath and Narasimha Murthy two years ago. The two were going in a van for the hearing in a land dispute case against Mohan when they were stopped by a gang in a jeep and hacked to death near Jathawara Gate on Chikballapur-Shidlagha-tta Road. Mohan, who was arrested for the murder, was out on bail. The police suspect that Mohan was murdered to avenge the killings of brothers.
The murders of Mohan and his alleged victims too bore similarities. The Murthys too were murdered on a Saturday around the same time Mohan was killed. “Mohan got married just six months ago to his best friend’s sister. He was staying at his wife’s house in Yeshwantpur near Malur. He was driving towards Shidlaghatta from his wife’s house when he was attacked. The identity of the accused is still not known,” the police said.
Local residents said that a car came to the village regularly for the last few days, probably to track Mohan’s movements. Mohan, a resident of Bhodaguru village in Shidlaghatta of Chikballapur district, had rowdyism and murder cases booked against him in Shidlaghatta police station, the Sulibele police said.
The postmortem was conducted at the Hosakote Government Hospital and the body was handed over to the family.