KARWAR : A court in Karwar has sent two former priests of the Alvekodi Maruti Temple in Kumta to life imprisonment for murdering a woman hailing from Dakshina Kannada district. The convicts are Chandrakanth Ganapathi Bhagwat and Mohan Ganapathi Bhagwat.
The two were earlier accused of committing the murder of Lalitha Poojari hailing from Dakshina Kannada, who worked as an attender in a private school near Kumta. It was said that she had an affair with both the brothers who ultimately killed her for jewellery on January 31, 2006 and then buried the body near the temple. Later on, they had exhumed the body from there and tried to burn it after dousing it with kerosene oil at Harineeru hills .The murder however came to light in October the same year. The then Kumta circle inspector of police Antony John had arrested the brothers and had filed the charge sheet.
The wife of one of the priests had even given witness in the court and had identified the kerosene can which her husband had taken from home. Police had even used as evidences nearly 32 items found from the place where the body was burnt and 18 letters. A total of 18 persons stood as witnesses in this case. Even Lalitha’s husband who was a worker in an excise contract company had identified the body of his wife.
Apart from lifer, the court has even imposed a penalty of Rs 25000 on each of the brothers. They will even have to undergo another three years of rigorous imprisonment and pay an additional penalty of Rs 2000 each for destroying evidences.
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