Four sentenced to life for 2010 Darjeeling couple murder case

Mangalore Today News Network

Bangalore, Sep 19, 2014:  Four persons were convicted and awarded life imprisonment by a fast-track court in Bangalore on Wednesday for the killing of a couple from Darjeeling in South East Bangalore in February 2010.

The convicted men are Santosh Chatri, 34, Pradeep Chatri 25, Preetam Tamang, 28, all natives of Darjeeling and Vivek alias Bikas, 22, of Assam. All four were awarded rigorous imprisonment for life and were slapped with fines of Rs 8,000 each for robbing the couple following the murders.

They were found guilty of murdering Amrith Ray, 28, and his wife Janaki, 23, who had moved to Bangalore following their marriage in Darjeeling. Ray was working as an office assistant with a private firm and his wife was a domestic servant.

The police probe into the case revealed that Ray and his wife were killed after one of the four killers, Pradeep Chhatri, who was a friend of the couple gained the impression that Ray was very rich after he bought a car and expressed interest in buying a property in the upmarket south east part of Bangalore.

Pradeep Chatri, who was the ‘Rakhi brother’ of Ray’s wife Janaki ganged up with the others to kill Ray and loot his wealth.

The four who visited Ray’s house on February 8, 2010, killed him while he was dropping them back home in his new car. They dumped the body near the Agara Lake and returned to Ray’s house and asked his wife Janaki to provide Ray’s driving license claiming that he had been stopped by the police.

When Janaki opened the cupboard to search for the license the foursome noticed that the couple had no money or jewels in their possession. The gang, according to the police, then murdered Janaki from fear that she would identify them when the murder of Ray was discovered.

The incident came to light on the following day on February 9, 2010, and police initially registered two separate cases of murder before linking the cases.

A police team lead by inspector LY Rajesh cracked the cases within a month of the murders and arrested the accused.


Courtesy: Indianexpress