Mandya, Apr 28: Father-in-law of Shilpa, Billaiah, and his younger brother, Puttaswamy, were arrested on Sunday on charges of harassing and killing Shilpa, who had married Billaiah’s son, Abhijeet, on January 1 this year. Shilpa had been chased and burnt alive at Kannahalli between Malavalli and Mysore by Puttaswamy and his wife, Prameela, on April 24 morning.

Both the above were taken into custody from Bangalore. Both of them confessed to have decided to kill Shilpa because of the social stigma attached to bringing into the family a girl from a different caste, said district superintendent of police, Bhushan Borase. He also added Abhijeet was let off after questioning, as prima facie it was found that he had no inkling about this murder plan.

Puttaswamy told the police that he and his wife had talked to Billaiah on the night of April 23 about the plan to eliminate Shilpa. ‘My wife and I were to ride to Mysore along with Shilpa on April 24 morning. Billaiah was asked to come in his vehicle from the direction of Mysore. However, as Billaiah’s arrival was delayed, we decided to execute the murder plan on our own. We stopped the bike at Kannahalli, and tried to kill Shilpa by tightening a veil around her neck. As she escaped and started running away, she fell in a pit. Immediately we poured petrol from a bottle we had already brought, on her face and head, and ignited fire. We left her there to die, and reached Kirugaval village by bike. I asked Prameela to go to Mysore, and went to Bannur in the bike. Once BIllaiah reached Bannur, we parked the motor bike in the compound of government school there and came to Bangalore to escape from police,’ Puttaswamy explained to the police.

The policemen have confiscated the motor bike used for the crime. Further investigation is continuing. Borase added that all the four, Billaiah, Puttaswamy, Prameela and Nagamma, have been remanded to judicial custody till May 6.