Date:24/12/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/12/24/stories/2006122421860300.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

It's murder for gain: police

Staff Reporter

Five teams formed to track down killers of IT professional

BANGALORE: Investigation into the mysterious death of software professional Adithya Lahari has revealed that it was a murder for gain and he had died of asphyxiation.

Lahari's body, with his hands tied, was found on a tank bed in Garudacharpalya in Mahadevapura police station limits on Friday.

While initial reports said that he had been hit with a blunt weapon, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Gopal B. Hosur told The Hindu on Saturday that Lahari (30) died of asphyxiation.

The robbers could have waylaid Lahari and attacked him with a view to robbing him. It does not appear that the murder was due to professional jealousy or rivalry, Mr. Hosur said. Lahari's car, laptop, wristwatch and credit cards are missing.

Lahari (32), a native of Kolkata, was working as a system analyst in a software company. His wife Aparna is a software engineer.

The couple were scheduled to leave for Germany on Monday on professional assignment.

The police are yet to ascertain where the murder took place. The assailants had torn a "duppatta" and tied Lahari's hands with it. Lahari had kept the "duppatta" in his car to clean the vehicle, he said.

Around 10 p.m. on Thursday Lahari phoned his wife and told her that he would be returning home from work soon. When he did not come home till midnight, Aparna lodged a complaint with the police in the early hours of Friday.

Lahari's body was handed over to his relatives on Saturday after autopsy and the last rites were performed here in the afternoon.

Five teams, two each from the East and South East divisions and one from the Central Crime Branch (CCB), are working under Mr. Hosur's supervision to trace the culprits.