Vehicle thief who killed sub-inspector had notorious burglar for company

Mangalore Today News Network

Bengaluru, Oct 19, 2015, DHNS:  The man, who was with the suspected vehicle lifter when he fatally stabbed a sub-inspector in Nelamangala on Friday, was not his father but a notorious burglar and vehicle thief himself.

C J Harish Babu, 45, and Madhu, the suspected vehicle thief, took to their heels when sub-inspector S Jagadish of Doddallapur Town police station gave them a chase, with a revolver in his hand.

Police earlier suspected Madhu’s accomplice to be his father, Krishnappa. But further inv­estigation threw more light on his identity.Babu, a native of Medikepur in Challakere taluk of Chitradurga district, is involved in more than 50 cases of burglary, vehicle theft and forgery reported from Bengaluru and other parts of Karnataka, a source in the police said.

Police in Hosapete, Ballari district, had arrested him in a forgery case. When they were bringing him back to Bengaluru after producing him in a court in April 2008, he had hoodwinked them at the bus stand in Tumakuru in April 2008 and escaped.

But just four months later, the Ashoknagar police in Bengaluru arrested him in four cases of burglary and vehicle theft, the source said. Babu was lodged at the Central Prison, Parappana Agrahara in Bengaluru. In March 2009, the Doddapet police in Shivamogga took him to a court in Shivamogga for trial in a criminal case pending against him there. When they were bringing him back, he escaped from their custody at Bengaluru’s crowded Kempegowda bus station.

The suspect has criminal cases against him reported in more than 20 police stations, including Nelamangala, Davangere, Shivamogga, Chitradurga, Arsikere, Channagiri, Tumakuru, Sira, Peenya, Jnanabharathi, Bidadi, Siddapura, Yeshwantpur and Ashoknagar, the source added.

Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Alok Mohan told Deccan Herald that Madhu’s accomplice had been identified as Harish Babu but it was unclear if he was the same person who had escaped from police custody twice in the past. Meanwhile, police are hunting for the duo. Five special teams of over 50 policemen have fanned out across Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh to catch them. One team is in Andhra Pradesh after police got a tip-off that the duo could be there. “We are interrogating some people including the two men’s family and friends,” Mohan added.

But catching the duo is quite a task for the police as they quickly changed their mobile phones and sim cards after the murder. Investigators are in touch with mobile service providers and outlets that sell sim cards and handsets in and around Bengaluru.