This should serve as a wake-up call that hiring a cab in Bangalore may not be as safe as you think it is.
On Thursday, a leading Andhra jeweller’s body was found in a 100-feet ravine at Charmadi Ghat in Chikkamagalur district. The jeweller — Manoj Kumar Grandhi, owner of Vizag’s Vaibhav Empire Jewellers — had gone missing while on way to the Bangalore International Airport on Tuesday. He was supposed to take a flight to Mumbai and his brother complained to the police when he did not land there.
While questioning the taxi driver who had taken Grandhi to the airport, the police came across some chilling facts: the driver, KV Ravikumar (26) had tricked Grandhi and strangled him to death with the help of two accomplices, Shivakumar and Krishnegowda (see sequence of events on right). Not just that, after the murder he drove the taxi with the body in the trunk to a court in Tumkurwhere Krishnegowda was to attend a case as a witness. After completing the proceedings while the car was parked in the court premises, the three drove off.
Ravikumar had also thought the plan through. After strangling Grandhi, the three transferred the body and the jewellery into the Corolla in which Shivakumar and Krishnegowda had arrived. Ravikumar continued to the airport with Grandhi’s cellphone — ostensibly for an alibi that he droppedGrandhi to the airport in case police questioned him (the cellphone signals would have shown that Grandhi had gone to the airport and the CCTV footage and security records would have also borne that out). For good measure, Ravikumar made Grandhi sign the duty slip en route to the airport saying this would save him some time.
Police commissioner BG Jyothiprakash Mirji said on Thursday that Ravikumar hatched the plot when he discovered that Grandhi was carrying gold jewellery and diamonds worth crores. Grandhi had left his bag carrying the valuables in Ravikumar’s car while going into various shops to buy more jewellery. Ravikumar had, on the sly, opened the bag. He immediately called Shivakumar and Krishnegowda.
Unconfirmed reports say that Grandhi had hired Ravikumar’s taxi earlier as well.
At 4am on Tuesday, Grandhi called Ravikumar from a luxury hotel in Residency Road to take him to Jayanagar 4th T Block before leaving for BIA. Grandhi wanted to check out a site for an outlet that he was planning to open. He was carrying jewellery worth `3 crore for shooting an advertisement in Mumbai.
After making Grandhi sign the duty slip, Ravikumar drove towards the airport but right after Windsor Manor bridge — the CM’s house is a stone’s throw away — he stopped the car on the pretext that it had broken down. His two accomplices were waiting near the BDA junction in a Corolla.
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