Jeweller murder: Easy money lured abductors

BANGALORE: Investigations revealed that a wrong guess by one of the accused in jeweller Nitesh Bera’s kidnap and murder case provoked the gang to kill Bera.Sources said Bera’s seven-storey building’s  construction was taking place at a rapid pace and this proved fatal for him.Police arrested five persons in connection with the murder. The accused are  Rakesh alias Bheema, 24, an advocate from Cubbonpet, Giri alias Onte, 20, of Andanappa Lane on Avenue Road, Yogesh alias Yogi, 20, of Kilari Road, Michael John, 20, of Anandapura in K R Puram and Shashikanth, 24, a goldsmith from Cubbonpet Main Road.Yogesh was an ITI student, while Michael was a BCom student. All the accused were reportedly going to K R S Gym in Cubbonpet, where they hatched a plot to do ‘something big’ and earn easy money. Police said the accused had assumed Bera was a rich man as he was also constructing a huge building near his shop. They hatched a plot at a cyber cafe owned by Rakesh, where another accused Giri was also employed. As per the plan they kidnapped Bera on March 27 and killed him.Wrong Guess Led to MurderPolice said that Yogesh collected jewels from Bera’s wife. “Bera had instructed his worker Mithun to bring jewels near a hotel at his shop. Mithun took 16 kgs of gold jewellery, along with some workers and supervisor of Bera’s under-construction building. When Mithun went to collect the jewels, he identified the shop workers but mistook the supervisor for policemen. Co-incidentally a police patrolling bike was following his bike. This made him think Bera’s wife had informed the police, so he sped away. Near K R Market, he noticed a police jeep, that further strengthened his doubts. He dumped Bera’s scooter in Market there and informed his partners that Bera’s family had approached the police,” police said. “The abductors had not planned to kill Bera. But Yogesh’s doubts provoked them to do so. Also, the accused were afraid of being caught while releasing him, as they were all identified. Bera had agreed to give the `2 crore ransom and had promised not to lodge complaint against them,” the police added. How the Plot was CrackedOver hundred people were questioned during the investigation process. Based on the details, police probed and found that Yogesh, who was living near Bera’s shop, was missing. They traced his cellphone details and matched the calls made to Bera’s residence. They found that the accused were hiding in Tirupati and while they were returning to the city, they were nabbed.Magistrate Aspirant Turns KillerAdvocate Rakesh, who was preparing for Magistrate exams, had turned to crime to make easy money.