A 35-year-old dance trainer was found dead with his throat slit on National Highway 48 in Karnataka’s Haveri district on August 25, said the police.
The deceased was identified as Lingesh M Tejappa, a resident of Chitradurga town, who ran a dance school and a cafe with his friends. His body was found around 120 km away, in the Byadagi taluk of Haveri, next to his bike parked on a flyover on NH-48, said the police.
According to a complaint filed by his mother Kavita M Tejappa, he left their home around 2.30 pm on August 24, saying that his friend Vicky alias Boda was celebrating his birthday and that he wanted to give him a gold chain as a gift. She said Lingesh took a gold chain from her before leaving. When Kavita called him around 8.45 pm, he told her that he would return home within 30 minutes, but never did, as per the complaint.
The next day, the patrolling police noticed the body and informed the local police that there was an accident on the highway around 9.30 am. Kavita and others reached the spot and identified Lingesh’s body. Based on Kavita’s complaint, the Byadagi police registered a case of murder and began a probe.
Yashodha S Vantagodi, Superintendent of Police, Haveri, visited the spot and said that there was a deep injury to his throat. “We also found a blade next to the body. We have received information that Lingesh went to Hubballi, but we have yet to confirm it. We checked the entry and exits of the toll. We also checked who was with him,” she said.
Meanwhile, Vicky told the police that his birthday is on September 17 and not August 24, as Lingesh had claimed.
“I was in Bengaluru on August 21. He called me and said that he was in fear. As he called me several times, I returned to the town. We do not know what happened. I had also invested in the cafe. He had the habit of consuming alcohol and frequently said that he was having fear for no reason. On August 24, when I called him, he said he was near Harihara and would reach town. But later, we found that he was dead,” said Vicky.