Representative image of dead body.
Credit: iStock Photo
Police have arrested two people on suspicion of murdering a 28-year-old civil engineer for having a romantic friendship with a colleague.
The key suspect was also trying to woo the woman.
On October 18, the partially decomposed body of a man was found on a farmland at Chikka Kukkanahalli, Bengaluru Rural district.
The farmland owner lodged a complaint at the Madanayakanahalli police station.
Police later established the identity of the deceased as Lokesh (28), originally from Honnali, Davangere district, who worked as a civil engineer at a private firm in Bengaluru.
Police investigations showed that Lokesh had a spat with a colleague. Police picked up the colleague for questioning and got to the bottom of the matter.
An officer close to the investigation said that Lokesh had joined the firm only five months ago and had grown close to a woman colleague.
Sidlaghatta native Prathap, 23, who worked in the same firm, also liked the woman.
"Prathap learnt that Lokesh and the woman texted each other almost every day. He became jealous and asked Lokesh to refrain from talking to the woman. But Lokesh didn't heed the warning,” the officer said.
Vowing to teach Lokesh a lesson, Prathap visited the firm's factory on October 5 with his friend Nagabhushanachari. The men forced him onto a two-wheeler and rode towards Chikka Kukkanahalli where they smashed his head with a stone, killing him instantly. They later hid the body on the farmland and fled the location, according to police.