Mangaluru court orders rigorous life imprisonment for 2 financiers who hacked to death friend

The sixth additional district sessions court of Mangaluru also imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on each of them, failing which the two would have to undergo an additional two years of rigorous imprisonment.

Apart from life imprisonment, the court has also sentenced the two individuals to undergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years, along with a fine of Rs 1 lakh. The district court specified that if they default on paying the fine, they would each undergo one year of imprisonment.

According to the police, Ramesh, Nithyananda and Naveen used to lend money to people on interest under a verbal deal that their activities should be confined to the areas where they had a stronghold. But Naveen went against the deal and started disbursing loans to people living beyond “his area”, which enraged Ramesh and Nithynanda, and he stopped picking their calls, said an officer.

Police said that Naveen was hacked to death by Ramesh following an altercation on the night of May 17, 2019. As Naveen did not attend their phone calls, the accused waited at Daddi Cross where Naveen had parked his scooter. As soon as Naveen arrived with a friend, Avinash, on another motorcycle, Ramesh and Nithyananda confronted him. Ramesh, in a fit of anger, suddenly picked up a cudgel and struck Naveen forcefully in the head. Naveen had succumbed to injuries.

Ramesh and Nithyananda were booked under Sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing the disappearance of evidence of the offence or providing false information to shield the offender), and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).