The girl who plotted a gangster’s end

Femme fatale

21-year-old Varshini now.

The investigation into the murder of Bengaluru’s richest gangster, Lakshmana, 45, took a new twist with the arrest of a 21-year-old girl, Varshini, who also happens to be a post-graduate student in the UK’s Cambridge University.

Explaining the sordid saga of love, obsession and murder, the police said that Lakshmana had given lakhs of rupees to Varshini, who he knew since she was a kid and, many years later, fell in love with her. But Varshini was in a relationship with another man, and this didn’t go down well with Lakshmana. This tension between the trio eventually led to the murder of Lakshmana.

Varshini, daughter of Harish Sanjeevappa, alias Moote Harish, was a neighbour of Lakshmana.

Her lover, Rupesh R alias Rupesh Gowda (25), a resident of RR Nagar and a native of Channapatna taluk, runs a dance class at Nagarabhavi.

According to the police, Harish and Lakshmana were close friends, with Harish allegedly handling many benami properties of Lakshmana. Since Lakshmana and Varshini were neighbours, the two made frequent visits to each others’ houses.

Lakshmana also frequently spoke to Varshini over the phone, bought her clothes and gave her money whenever she wanted it.

Things took a twist when Varshini came in contact with Rupesh when she joined his dance class a couple of years ago. Both fell in love and they allegedly eloped twice.

Distraught over his daughter’s behaviour, Harish told Lakshmana to warn Rupesh to stay away from his daughter but nothing changed.

As years passed, Lakshmana became obsessed with Varshini, who was half his age. As he wanted to be in a relationship with her, Lakshmana used to call her frequently and take her out.

To break up the couple, Lakshmana advised Harish to send his daughter to London for higher studies. In 2018, she was sent to London to study MSc in Psychology in the UK’s Cambridge University.

According to the police, Lakshmana regularly sent huge amounts of money running to several lakhs to Varshini’s bank account. But Lakshmana couldn’t achieve his objective as Rupesh and Varshini were in touch.

Both decided that if Lakshmana was alive, he won’t let them get married. So they hatched a plan to kill Lakshmana. Varshini transferred more than Rs 1 lakh to Rupesh’s account to hire supari killers.

Rupesh searched for the rival gang of Lakshmana and learnt that Raja alias ‘Cat’ Raja and his associates were waiting to take revenge against Lakshmana for killing their associate Krishnamurthy alias Maccha.

To lure Lakshmana, Varshini told him that she would be coming to Bengaluru on March 7 and asked him to book a hotel room.

On March 7, Varshini called Lakshmana and informed him that she is landing in Bengaluru asked him about the hotel booking.

All the details that Lakshmana provided about his movements to her was shared by Vashini to Rupesh, who transferred it to the killers.

When Lakshmana reached Renaissance Temple, in front of Bell Apartment at Mahalakshmi Layout, assailants came in Scorpio and Indica and hacked Lakshmana to death around 12.30 pm and fled the scene.