Husband arrested for Kannada actress Manjula murder in Bangalore

Kannada actress Manjula

With the arrest of five persons, the Central Crime Branch (CCB) are claiming to have cracked the mysterious murder of Kannada actress Manjula. One of the arrested is her husband Yogesh.

The actress's decomposed body was found near Madadi this Sunday. She had done bit roles in movies such as Josh, Pran, Appu and Omkara, to name a few. She had also done a supporting role in the popular Kannada soap Guptagamini.

Yogesh was formerly a BBMP contractor, constructing sewage canals in the city. He was ambitious, and wanted to venture into the film world, but never had enough money. Finally, in 2005, he turned to the small screen as a consolation. But he didn't have many contacts in the TV world, and was always on the lookout for producers and actors. A friend introduced him to Manjula, who was a TV actress then, and the two became friends.

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Manjula was looking for roles in feature films, without much success. Yogesh told her that he was setting up a Kannada channel, and it would be mutually beneficial for them. Gradually, Manjula, who was married with two kids at the time, fell in love with Yogesh. On Yogesh's advice, she got a divorce, and the two got married in 2007.

Post marriage, Manjula landed supporting roles in some movies, and similarly, Yogesh made more contacts in the industry. He also started drinking heavily. Gradually, he lost most of his money to people, and Manjula too, was losing her screen presence. Yogesh had borrowed heavily from people and was struggling to repay them. Despite the shortcomings, the relationship stood its ground.

But as all good things come to an end, this one did too. Because of Yogesh's drinking problem, Manjula had had an affair. Soon, Yogesh got wind of it, and decided to kill her for cheating on him.

He hatched a plan, and paid Rs. 6 lakh to four contract killers -- Vikram, Anil, Prakash and Radeesh. On July 7, the group took her to Magadi, and strangled her to death. They buried the body, and went there separate ways. Yogesh filed a complaint with the Nandini Layout police station that Manjula had gone missing, avoid any suspicion on him.

The case was transferred to the CCB after a fortnight. Officials, after investigating for a while, stumble upon the fact that Yogesh was already planning to remarry. Further investigation led them to the four others, and hence, they solved the case.

B N Nyamagouda, ACP, (CCB) said, "Yogesh tried to turn us away from the investigation many times, but we caught on quick. We first trapped the other four, and Yogesh later. We recovered Rs. 55 lakh in cash and other valuables from them. He killed her because of her affair."