BANGALORE: S. Shantala, sister-in-law of Pratibha, the business process outsourcing firm employee who was murdered in December 2005, on Monday denied any role by her family in the murder of Pratibha.

Continuing her deposition before a fast track court hearing the Pratibha murder case, Ms. Shantala denied that she had a tiff with Pratibha and said it was not true that she had stayed separately in a house in Padmanabhanagar before the murder.

She denied that the police arrested her brother after the murder.

Ms. Shantala said she did not remember whether the residential address given by her for the mobile phone was that of Padmanabhanagar. She also denied that she took a new mobile phone in January 2006 to avoid disclosure of the Padmanabhanagar address.

Ms. Shantala said her fiancé lived in Padmanabhanagar and at the time of murder on December 16, 2005 she was not married.

Ms. Shantala faced some discomfort when she was asked by defence counsel S. Shankarappa about what her brother (Pratibha's husband) Pavan Shetty did for his living.

"You brother sold tender coconuts and peanuts on the footpath in Bangalore." To that Ms. Shantala said: "We have not reached that low." Special Public Prosecutor K. Janardhan objected to the question.

When Mr. Shankarappa insisted on an answer, Ms. Shantala said her brother was involved in loading sesame seeds and peanuts, which were then despatched to customers.

She said he earned handsomely for his living.

Ms. Shantala said it was after completion of her MBA that she left Mysore and stayed in her brother's house in Bangalore from 2002.

They shifted to a house in Kumaraswamy Layout in 2003, wherein the two were joined by Pratibha after her marriage with her brother on February 23, 2004.

Pratibha's marriage was performed in a temple in Katriguppe, despite Pratibha's mother opposition. One of her relative started living with them to help Pratibha in household chores.

On December 13, 2005, she went to work to her office in Jayanagar after sending Pratibha by a pick up vehicle around 2 a.m.

Around 6 p.m. she received a call from her brother informing that his wife was missing.

As she came back to the house, his brother went to Hewlett Packard office. He returned in the night after asking Pratibha's uncle to a file a missing complaint.

On December 16, her brother went with the police in the morning and found the Pratibha's body around 8 a.m.

The body was given to the relatives after post-mortem and the cremation was done in Mysore in the night, she said.

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