Thriving business costs vegetable trader his life

BANGALORE: A wholesale vegetable trader who was missing since July 1, was murdered allegedly by his business rivals.
Manjunath Narayanappa, 25, was strangled to death and set on fire. His charred body was found in the woods of Yelandur taluk, Chamarajanagar district earlier this week.
Manjunath was a successful trader at RMC Yard in Yeshwantpur, North Bangalore, and a resident of Subramanyanagar.He married one-and-a-half years ago and had an infant child.
His father, Narayanappa, had filed a complaint with Subramanyanagar police that his son had gone missing.
DCP (North) Sandeep Patil flashed a message, giving details of the missing man across the state. A few days later, Chamarajanagar police contacted Subramanyanagar police, saying they had recovered a charred body which matched Manjunath's description.
"Subramanyanagar police and Manjunath's family visited the spot and recognized the body with the help of the marriage ring. The postmortem revealed Manjunath was strangled to death," Patil said.
Police, meanwhile, visited RMC Yard and questioned a few shop owners. "Investigations revealed that Kumar, owner of Siddalingeshwara Traders, had had a fight with Manjunath over vegetable loading and selling. Kumar was jealous of Manjunath as he was extremely successful," sleuths said.
Kumar allegedly hatched a plot and directed his employees Govindaraj Srinivas and Lakshmipathi Nagappa to take Manjunath to a bar and make him consume alcohol. "On the night of July 1, they took Manjunath to a bar in Yeshwantpur and forced him to drink. Later Kumar joined them and took Manjunath close to Yeshwantpur railway station and smashed his head with a blunt object. They then bundled him into a car and drove to Yelandur in Chamrajanagar, where they strangled him and set his body on fire," police said.
Police are looking for Kumar, who is at large. Govindaraj, 23, of Kunigal, and Lakshmipathi, 25, of Doddaballapur, were arrested.
SIMILAR KILLING
The woods of Chamarajanagar district have often provided the perfect cover for murder. In February last, the headless bodies of two Bangaloreans were found in Jageri forest area of Satyagala range near Kollegal.
Soji Thomas, 38, a moneylender, and Binos Thomas, 35, a nurse, both relatives and residents of HSR Layout, were killed by businessman Arun Rao, who owns a large farmhouse in Kollegal. Biju allegedly owed Rao Rs 2.5 crore.