Killed for Rs 8 crore: Wife murders husband in Kodagu; arrested with two accomplices

Madikeri: The Kodagu police have arrested three persons including a woman who were involved in the murder a man and later burning the body.

The arrested are Niharika P (29), Nikhil Maireddy (28) both from Ramamurthy Nagara in Bengaluru and Ankul Rana (30) from Haryana, said Kodagu SP Ramarajan K. The police have recovered a car used for the offence and also mobile phones.

Half charred body of an unidentified man was found inside an estate near Suntikoppa on October 8. Four special teams were constituted with 16 police personnel to trace the identity of the man and also to solve the mystery behind the case.

The SP said as it was a sensitive case, tracing the identity of the victim was challenging as the body was charred. The teams were successful in collecting the data scientifically with technical inputs.

More than 500 CCTV camera footage were verified to trace the vehicles. The teams had collected technical details for 10 days. Based on the inputs on the suspected car used in the offence, the victim was identified as Ramesh Kumar (54) from Hyderabad. The arrested are his second wife and her two friends.

Explaining the case, the SP said Ramesh had sold a property and had Rs eight crore in his possession. Niharika plotted the murder to get the money. Accordingly, she asked her friend Rana to visit Hyderabad on October 1. On October 3, he asked her husband Ramesh Kumar to visit Hyderabad.

In the name of dropping, they left in the car owned by Ramesh Kumar and murdered Kumar by strangulating him on the way to their destination. Later, they travelled to Horamavu in Bengaluru and informed her another friend Nikhil. To dispose of the body, they travelled to Panya estate in Suntikoppa, where they burnt the body before leaving the spot.

The special team arrested Niharika and Nikhil on October 22. Later, they arrested Ankur Rana from Haridwara.

Ramesh Kumar was the third husband of Niharika. After her divorce, she married a man from Haryana. However, her husband had sent her to jail in a cheating case. In the prison, she had met Rana's mother and befriended Rana. Later, she married Ramesh Kumar from Hyderabad and came to Bengaluru. In Bengaluru, she was working for a well-known firm and befriended veterinary doctor Nikhil from Ramamurthy Nagara.