Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SP/JD)
Udupi, Jul 21: District superintendent of police (SP), N Vishnuvardhan, addressed a press meet here on Wednesday July 21 on the sensational Vishala Ganiga murder case, which the district have successfully cracked in spite of lack of evidences and absence of clues.
The SP praised his team of policemen for having been able to solve the case in such a short time even though there were no evidences, no eyewitnesses, and no CCTV clips. "Four police teams were formed to crack the case. All the CCTVs between Kundapur and Padubidri were verified but no clues were found. We also checked flight details besides questioning taxi drivers and other staff. People residing in the said flat were also questioned. Police teams visited Hassan, Andhra Pradesh and various other places in search of hints. We got one lead which said that one of the suspects was in Uttar Pradesh. With the help of Gorakhpur SP and his team, we searched for him. We then got another lead saying that he was near the Nepal border. He was arrested from there. This man confessed that he was hired by Ramakrishna to kill his wife. The murder plan was hatched six to seven months back," he explained.
Police press meet
One of the supari killers Swaminathan
Ramakrishna planned this murder when in Dubai. He paid two lac rupees as the fee of the contract killers. In March this year, the accused were shown the home and other places. On July 12, the supari killer called Ramakrishna over phone from Gorakhpur after which he came here and strangulated the lady to death.
The SP said that for a week his team had slogged it out and underwent a lot of struggles before tasting success at last.
Ramakrishna Ganiga has been remanded to police custody till July 23.
About the motive of the murder, the SP said that as per the husband's statement, there were differences between the two. However, he added that the investigation is still in initial stages and the police will look into the case from several other angles.
In this case, Ramakrishna had asked Vishala to return to the flat alone. Once she obliged, after about five to ten minutes, the supari killers reached there.
The SP said that Gorakhpur SP, Dinesh, extended lot of help to the police team. He also said that Manipal forensic team, Mangaluru forensic science laboratory team, inspector general of police review of the situation apart from the UP police helped the police in various ways. The supari amount was paid by bank fund transfer. Now, the police are on the lookout for the other supari killer and the man who introduced the killers to Ramakrishna. The SP said that Ramakrishna believed that he would not be nabbed as he was in Dubai and operated from there.
About the planning of the murder from Dubai, he said that another person was also involved in the case. That person had introduced Ramakrishna to supari killers. This person is yet to be identified. The killer's age is 38. The SP gave full credit to technical analysis combined with field level information, which enabled the team to solve the case.
It is learnt that Vishala never discussed about her husband with her family. A week back, Ramakrishna had called Vishala to pick up a parcel from one of his friends. The parcel contained a gift item. Ramakrishna did this to find whether Vishala was prepared to come alone when asked to do so. The arrest of the killer was made from Nepali border on July 19. The SP also said that notice has been issued to the flat owners for not installing CCTV cameras as per rules.
The SP added that the director general of police, Praveen Sood, has announced a reward of Rs 50,000 to the team involved in solving the murder case. Range IGP has issued commendation certificate to all the team members, he said.