Haveri: Nearly eight months after letting people believe that he was killed in a fire that engulfed an NWKRTC bus depot in Haveri district’s Ranebennuru, the man is said to have returned home on Sunday, August 13. The man, Lingaraj Belagutti, it is now learnt had murdered his uncle before setting his body on fire in the bus.
The police probing the case had initially assumed that Belagutti, who was working as a security person at the depot had died in a freak mishap after a charred body was found inside the bus. However, around four days ago the Ranebennur police received the DNA report of the body and interestingly, it did not match the samples of his mother. Sensing something wrong the police continued investigation in the case.
On Sunday, the man suddenly reappeared and initially claimed to have been abducted by some miscreants who had come to the depot to steal diesel. However, during the interrogations he finally confessed that he had murdered his uncle for personal reasons and had set his body on fire in the bus.
Reportedly the victim, Channappa, he said was having an illicit relation with one of Lingaraj’s aunt and was also misbehaving with his wife. Irked over this Lingaraj murdered his uncle on December 31, last year. He later set his body on fire in the bus. Lingaraj who had gone to Goa and later to Mumbai after the incident returned home on Sunday, since he felt like meeting his children.
Channappa, being a bachelor, no one had registered a missing person complaint, the police said adding that they will be probing the accused’s wife Nirmala, his mother Nilamma and other relatives to know if they too were involved in the case. Meanwhile, a murder case has been registered against Lingaraj