'Yathish kept to himself, barely talked to anyone'

Software engineer Hemalatha was to get married soon. But by a quirk of fate, her life was cut short as her own younger brother not only poisoned her to death, but also her two younger sisters and parents before killing himself at their home in MPM Layout in Nagarabhavi.

Hemalatha, 30, the eldest of the three daughters of BSNL employee Gangahanumaiah, was working with IT major HP in Electronics City. She was recently engaged to a lab technician working at the KC General Hospital in Malleswaram.

Her family was making arrangements for the wedding which was scheduled to take place in the coming months.

The lab technician, who could not come to terms with the death of his fiancée, said: “I had been trying to call Hema since Wednesday morning but she didn’t respond. I tried calling her on Thursday morning but could not get through.

I thought she was busy. Later, I got to know from other family members about the incident. I’m shattered. It’ll take a long time for me to come to terms with life. But I need to stay strong at least to help her relatives with the funeral and get the bodies from the Victoria Hospital after the post-mortem,” he said.

Gangahanumaiah hailed from Sugganahalli village in Magadi taluk of Ramanagar district while his wife Jayalakshamma was from Kanuru in the same taluk. For a few years, Gangahanumaiah worked in Kolar before moving to Nagarabhavi where he built a one-storey house a few years ago.

The multiple murders have stunned the local residents. Manoj, a friend of Gangahanumaiah’s youngest daughter Nethravathi, was inconsolable.

“She was studying electrical engineering and was good in academics. She had told us she was a little disturbed as her mother had brain haemorrhage and was paralysed. She used to talk about her brother Yathish being depressed in life. But we never thought this would end up like this.”

Gangahanumaiah’s relatives said Yathish had dropped out of an ITI course and later from an engineering programme, too.

He tried hard at studies but couldn’t succeed. Being jobless, he would be home most of them. He came out as a quiet, serious individual. He would hardly talk to his family members and didn’t have many friends, they added.