Kiran, the 32-year-old sacked driver who was arrested by the Subramanyapura police for allegedly murdering a senior geologist, Prathima K.S., outside her house in Doddakallasandra on Friday night (November 3), was furious with her for not reinstating him on the job, said the police.
Kiran, who worked with Prathima for four years, was sacked for being rude and unruly. Prathima, after repeated warnings, sacked Kiran, replacing him with another driver on a contract basis.
A resident of Jambusavari Dinne in Konankunte, Kiran and his father have been working in the Mines and Geology Department as drivers for eight years. He was a contract employee, and he presumed that his services would be regularised and that he would be made a permanent employee in two to three years if all went well.
Kiran had even told everyone, including his friends, relatives and family members, that his job as a driver had been already regularised, a senior police officer said.
Kiran, who was jobless for over a month, had trouble at home, and his wife separated from him. Desperate, he wanted to get back to work and came to Prathibha’s apartment a day before the murder to meet her and request her to take him back.
As she was not available, Kiran came back on Friday night and waited, Rahul Kumar Shahpurwad, DCP, south division, who supervised the investigation, said.
The Subramanyapura police, on Sunday (November 5) around 8.30 a.m., received a phone call from Pratheesh stating that he had come to his sister’s house in Doddakallasandra near Gokulam Apartments as she had not received his phone calls since the previous night. Pratheesh told the police that he found the front door of his sister’s two-storied independent house open, and she was lying motionless in her bedroom in a pool of blood.
Considering the magnitude of the case, three special teams were formed. After collecting information from Prathima’s colleagues and neighbours, they learnt that a former driver named Kiran, who was sacked a couple of months ago, had gone incommunicado.
Kiran’s phone remained switched off, and when the police inquired with Kiran’s family members, they did not have any idea as to where he was. This turned the needle of suspicion towards the former driver, after which the two police teams started pursuing his whereabouts and traced Kiran to Male Mahadeshwara (M.M.) Hills in Chamarajanagar.
Kiran was picked up by the police on Sunday night, and he was brought to Bengaluru the same day. During the interrogation, he admitted to the crime.
According to the officials, Kiran told the police that he had gone to Prathima’s house on Saturday night as he knew that she would get back home by around 8 p.m. on working days. He met Prathima on Saturday one last time to apologise and request her to reinstate him to the job.
However, when Prathima was in no mood to give a hearing to him, he forced himself inside her house and decided to kill her. Kiran initially used a veil Prathima was wearing to strangulate her. When she fell unconscious, he went to her kitchen and brought a knife with which he slit her throat.
After confirming that she was dead, he waited for the right time to escape. Kiran then fled to Chamarajanagar the same night. The police have also retrieved CCTV camera footage of Kiran near Prathima’s house on Saturday night.
Job loss
According to the investigating officer, ACP Pavan N., Kiran was depressed as he was removed from his job. Prathima used to reprimand him for his rude behaviour and even warned him that she would remove him from the job if he continued with his behaviour.
There was an occasion when he abused others when the vehicle he was driving met with a minor accident. It was then that Prathima decided to replace him, a senior police officer who was a part of the investigation said.
Another police officer said after Kiran was sacked, he had approached Prathima at the office two to three times, requesting her to reinstate him. However, Prathima had by then found a replacement for him.
There were also allegations that Kiran would leak information about raids and inspections that the junior officers at the Mines and Geology Department would carry out. However, the police maintained that they were questioning him further.
The murder snowballed into a controversy after BJP leaders alleged that the mining mafia was murdering honest officers. They also accused the Home Minister of not taking law and order issues seriously.
