BENGALURU: Bengaluru city railway police have come to the conclusion that Telugu playback singer Harini’s father AK Rao died by suicide.
Rao’s body was found on a railway track near Yelahanka on November 23 last year and police registered a murder case based on a complaint filed by his other daughter, Shalini Rao. Police found that Rao had reportedly cut his wrist, neck and forehead using a blade.
“Our probe revealed Rao was not murdered; he killed himself because of some conmen. We will soon file a chargesheet against the suspects for abetting his suicide,” said an investigating officer.
Police said Rao was upset after his name cropped up in a cheating case registered in Suddaguntepalya police station. Police had arrested five persons in the cheating case and learnt that the gang used Rao as a middleman to contact victims. The gang allegedly cheated two businessmen of over Rs 5.8 crore.
Railway police said their preliminary probe revealed that Rao killed himself because of the gang — Syed Ibrahim alias Daniel Armstrong alias Amaran from Kerala; Vivekananda alias Vicky alias Viveka alias Vivekananda Kumar; Christopher alias Raghavan; Raghuvaran and Shivaraman alias Nagaraj, all four from Tamil Nadu. In the third week of January, they took the five men into custody to interrogate them in Rao’s death case.
The gang said they knew that one person, identified as Sudhakar Stephen, was in touch with Rao. Stephen told Rao that he knew a financial firm which could give loans of over Rs 100 crore to businessmen. Rao introduced two businessmen, who were looking for loans, to the gang. He, however, wasn’t aware of the gang’s intentions.
According to the two FIRs filed by Girish P, of Ashokanagar, and Taram, a resident of Subansiri district in Arunachal Pradesh, Girish lost Rs 2.2 crore and Taram, Rs 3.6 crore. Girish has a real estate firm in Bengaluru and was about to take up a new project. He was looking for a low-interest loan.
One of the miscreants called Girish and asked him to contact Armstrong, who runs a finance firm in Krishna Nagar, near BTM Layout. Vivekananda and Raghavan met him and he received an email on November 8, in which they agreed to sanction Rs 150 crore as loan. They were supposed to disburse the loan by November 16, but did not.
Similarly, Taram alleged he was cheated of Rs 3.6 crore. Taram wanted a loan for his project and the gang approached him over phone. The gang arranged a flight ticket for him to Bengaluru on October 25. He met them in their office and they agreed to sanction him Rs 240 crore. They sent him an email on November 8. Taram met Armstrong at his office on November 14. The next day, he transferred Rs 3.6 crore as a commitment amount, expecting the money by evening. When he did not get it, he visited Armstrong’s office and realised he had been cheated.
Meanwhile, Suddaguntepalya police learnt that Rao was one of the middlemen between the accused and the victims. So, they summoned Rao for interrogation and he appeared before police on November 22. Humiliated by the developments, Rao booked a cab from a hotel on Residency Road, where he was lodged, and went to Yelahanka. He reached the railway track by 7.30pm and killed himself.
