Bengaluru man's 11-year battle clears his name in wife's rape-murder case: Report

A Bengaluru bank employee, wrongfully jailed for the brutal rape and murder of his wife, has been cleared after an intense 11-year legal battle.

In 2013, the city was shaken by the shocking discovery of a 43-year-old woman’s body in a eucalyptus grove on the Bengaluru-Doddaballapur highway. Her husband, the bank employee, had reported her missing after she failed to return home from work, Indian Express reported.

According to the report, her body was found days later, and a post-mortem revealed that she had been sexually assaulted.

Despite the lack of concrete evidence, the police arrested the husband, accusing him of murder based on bloodstains found in his house. After spending 73 days in jail, he was released when the police failed to establish any link between him and the crime. However, the case was closed in 2015, leaving the man and his family devastated by the lack of justice.

In 2022, the husband, unwilling to accept the case’s closure, approached the Karnataka High Court, requesting the investigation be reopened. The court directed the CID to take over the case.

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Breakthrough in the case

A breakthrough came when the CID examined call detail records and identified Narasimha Murthy, the victim's former manager, as a key suspect. Murthy had been in regular contact with the victim on the day she went missing.

Further investigations, including brain mapping and polygraph tests, revealed that Murthy, along with two accomplices, Deepak Channappa and Hariprasad, had brutally raped and strangled the victim. They disposed of her body, and Murthy sold his car after the crime. Forensic analysis of the vehicle found traces of the victim’s blood.

The case is currently in trial, relying heavily on scientific evidence. The CID submitted a 1,277-page chargesheet, which includes testimonies from 84 witnesses.

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