College student held for woman's murder

The Hemalatha murder case, which had shocked residents of South Bangalore in August, has been cracked. The accused is a 21-year-old

student at BMS Engineering College.
The case
Hemalatha, 43, a home-maker who was alone at her house in Anjaneyanagar, Banashankari 3rd Stage, was found brutally murdered on August 11 afternoon. She stayed with husband Mahadevappa, a former Doordarshan employee, and two college-going sons.
On August 11, her second son came back from college and found his mother's body. Chennammanakere Achchukattu police began the investigation and the case was handed over to the Central Crime Branch (CCB) 15 days ago.
Mahadevappa is a native of Gundlupet in Mysore district, while Hemalatha was from Tumkur. Mahadevappa was into several odd jobs, including real estate and finance. The family used to stay in Girinagar and had shifted to a rented house in Anjaneyanagar 10 months ago.
The accused
The accused Nuthan Kumar is a final year computer engineering student. His father H R Suresh is an electrical contractor from Muneshwara Block in Srinagar. The boy used to run a gymnasium in Girinagar which was frequented by Hemalatha, police said.
When Nuthan completed his PUC from a college in Jayanagar, he is said to have been obese, weighing 160 kg. He joined a gymnasium to lose weight and later became an expert at physical fitness and exercise, police said. So, he started a gymnasium -- Matrix Fitness -- in December 2007.
The connection
In January 2008, Hemalatha started going to the gymnasium, which has nearly 60 members. The two became friends and developed physical intimacy, police added. Nuthan used to allegedly frequent her house too.
Hemalatha is said to have coaxed Nuthan to invest -- nearly Rs 10,000 per month -- in a chit fund run by her friend Bharathi. He had invested nearly Rs 2 lakh.
Nuthan planned to gift his father a car on his birthday in October as he had sold his old one. But whenever he asked for the chit fund money to be returned, Hemalatha was evasive. She even started avoiding him.
The fateful day
On August 11, Nuthan called Hemalatha thrice on her mobile phone but she did not reply. So he went to her place on his motorcycle, carrying a sword in his college bag.
When he confronted Hemalatha, the two fought over the issue. Hemalatha is said to have hurled a vase at him. Enraged, Nuthan allegedly hacked her to death with the sword. He then threw her mobile phone, after breaking it, near South End circle, and visited a temple in Thyagarajanagar before going home.
The probe
The jurisdictional police had interrogated several persons and suspected an illicit relationship as there were no signs of forcible entry.
CCB police later found out about Nuthan entering the house on the fateful day, and about him discarding the phone, through call details. DCP (crime) S N Siddaramappa said: "We systematically investigated several persons and finally based on evidence collected, arrested Nuthan. He then confessed to the crime."