The police investigation into what was almost assumed to be the death by suicide of a 45-year-old former grama panchayat member in Karnataka has taken a twist after it was found that he was murdered in a plot allegedly orchestrated by his wife.
Lokesh, a former gram panchayat member of Makali village in Bengaluru South (formerly Ramanagara) district, was found dead inside his car with a bottle of poison lying next to him on June 24. Initially, the police suspected it to be a suicide as there were no external injuries.
Chandrakala Lokesh, his wife, told the police that Lokesh had taken many loans and that the family was in distress because he was unable to repay them. Her family members tried to console Chandrakala, a mother of two and a grama panchayat member.
But as days passed, the investigation took a different turn.
A police officer said, “The postmortem report suggested that Lokesh had consumed poison. But what made us suspicious was that Lokesh’s slippers were not found in the car or near the place where his body was found. Also, the cap of the bottle of the poison that he had consumed was not seen. There were no signs of struggle. Then, we decided to follow the call detail records (CDR) of the family members and Lokesh’s rivals.”
The CDR analysis revealed that she had contacted a man named Yogesh multiple times on the day of Lokesh’s death, the police said, adding that further investigations showed Yogesh had been communicating with Santosh, a murder accused, raising immediate red flags.
When the police questioned Chandrakala, they found her statements inconsistent.
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Santosh’s network dump placed him at the crime scene on the murder date, along with three accomplices—Shivaling, Surya, and Chandan—all from his contact list.
Chandrakala eventually confessed to orchestrating the murder, leading to the arrest of all five persons on Friday, the police said.
A police officer pointed to what he said was the couple’s troubled marriage. “Chandrakala primarily lived in Bengaluru with their two children, while Lokesh visited weekly. She travelled to MK Doddi only for panchayat meetings. Their relationship had deteriorated due to mutual suspicions of extramarital affairs, leading to frequent quarrels,” he said.
Eighteen years after the marriage, with their children aged 16 and 14 respectively, Chandrakala wanted to escape from her husband, the police officer said.
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“Chandrakala shared her problem with her friend Yogesh. Together, they decided to eliminate Lokesh. Yogesh then contacted his schoolmate Santosh, hiring him for Rs 5 lakh to carry out the murder while making it appear as a suicide,” the officer said.
According to the police, the accused executed their plan on the night of June 23. As Lokesh returned from Bengaluru, Yogesh tracked his movements minute by minute, relaying the information to Santosh and his gang. The team allegedly intercepted Lokesh near Kanva Road, administered poison forcefully, and ensured that he died.
The accused staged evidence to support the suicide narrative before fleeing from the scene, said a police officer.