Solving Crime: Grief to confession and a prison escape – How Karnataka Police exposed a quadruple murderer hiding in plain sight

The murders

Appi Sherigarthi, 70, her son Govinda , 22, daughter Shakuntala, 28, and Shakuntala’s daughter Deepika, 10, lived in a small house located on the Mangaluru-Karkala Road. Shakuntala’s husband was employed in Muscat.

On the morning of February 24, 1994, 12-year-old Revathi visited the Sherigarthi house like other days to supply milk but she got no response to her knocks. After stepping inside the house, the girl witnessed a horrific scene. There were blood stains all around the house, and the frightened girl ran away to share the news with her grandmother. When the villagers rushed to the house, they discovered four members of the Sherigarthi family had been murdered.

Jayanth Vasudev Shetty, who was a police sub-inspector in Mangaluru rural police station at the time, recalled, “I reached the spot and found out that Govinda’s body was lying on a bed. There was another body next to Govinda. The first impression was that someone known to the family was the murderer because there was no sign of forced entry.”

Ironically, just days before, Shakuntala’s husband sent a letter advising her to take good care of their daughter. But the letter was delivered to the Sherigarthi house on the day he reached Vamanjoor after learning about the murders.

Grief to confession

Praveen Kumar, a man in his 30s, seemed grief-stricken after learning about the murder of his maternal aunt Appi Sherigarthi and her family. Like other relatives and villagers, Praveen demanded that the police nab the culprit at the earliest.

Praveen, a tailor, lived with his wife in Periyadka village near Uppinangady, 56 km from Vamanjoor. “When asked where he was on the day of the crime, Praveen said he was in his village and he, too, would have been murdered had he been at his aunt’s place on that fateful night,” Jayanth Shetty told The Indian Express.

The police did not suspect Praveen at first. But Praveen slowly came under the police radar, after they found out that he often visited the Sherigarthi family. “As we had clarity that someone known to the family was behind the murder, Praveen became a suspect,” Jayanth Shetty said.

The police first took Praveen into confidence, claiming that they were seeking information about the suspects. The police took him for lunch in Uppinangady and then travelled towards Mangaluru.

When they again asked Praveen where he was on the intervening night of February 23-24, 1994, he told the police that he was at his residence. But by then the police had found out from Praveen’s wife that he was not at home that night. Praveen could not fool the police anymore, and by the time he reached the Mangaluru rural police station, he had confessed to the crime.

The investigation revealed that Praveen killed members of the Sherigarthi family while they were asleep, as he wanted to get the gold ornaments that they had kept in tiffin boxes at their residence.

A police officer who was part of the probe said, “Praveen was addicted to gambling, especially the single number lottery, and he had availed loans from a lot of people. One week before the crime, he had decided to kill the members of the Sherigarthi family and rob their valuables. After the arrest, the gold ornaments he had taken were recovered.”

Cash reward

While the probe progressed after the arrest of Praveen, he was lodged in the Hindalga prison in Belagavi. In 1997, when he was in judicial custody, he escaped when he was being brought back from the court. A police officer stated that the prison police initially gave false information. They said that Praveen escaped near Mangaluru but, in reality, he had escaped from Dharwad. After the escape, Praveen remained elusive for months.

Jayanth Shetty said the Appi Sherigarthi family was disappointed with the turn of events and was putting pressure on the police. As there were no leads on Praveen’s whereabouts, the police department announced a Rs 1 lakh reward for information regarding Praveen.

Jayanth Shetty recalled that in 1999, nearly two years after Praveen escaped, he received a phone call from a person who claimed that Praveen was living near Karwar. “I was receiving hundreds of phone calls (on Praveen) but took all of them seriously. We used to verify the details, and each time the information turned out to be false. But in this particular call, the man gave more details about Praveen,” said Jayanth Shetty.

“But the informant had a trust issue. He asked me how he could be sure that the police would reward him. The then SP (superintendent of police) was Kamal Pant and I asked the informant to call after 20 minutes. Later, Kamal Pant spoke to him personally and assured him of a reward if the information was correct,” he added.

Thereafter, a police team from the Dakshina Kannada district went to a village near Karwar in Uttara Kannada district and arrested Praveen.

Conviction and release

The police later filed a chargesheet and the principal sessions judge of Dakshina Kannada awarded the death penalty to Praveen on February 4, 2002. Praveen challenged the order and approached higher courts. The Supreme Court also confirmed the death sentence awarded by the trial court. His mercy petition before the President of India was rejected in 2013.

However, the Supreme Court in 2014, commuted the death penalty to life imprisonment on grounds of a delay in the disposal of the mercy petition. A Supreme Court bench said, “We are of the cogent view that undue, inordinate and unreasonable delay in execution of death sentence does certainly attribute to torture which indeed is in violation of Article 21 (Right to life and liberty) and thereby entails as the ground for commutation of sentence.”

In 2023, Praveen Kumar was released from the prison for good conduct, even though the Sherigarthi family submitted a memorandum to then home minister Araga Jnanendra and others opposing Praveen’s release.

Even Praveen’s family members opposed his return to their village, and Praveen now works as a tailor in Belagavi.

On the other hand, Jayanth Shetty went on to receive the president’s medal, chief minister’s gold medal, and the UN peacekeeping gold medal. In 2015, he retired as superintendent of police and is currently living in Mangaluru.