Bengaluru:
A young woman and her partner were found stabbed to death in their home outside Bengaluru on Sunday. The police have arrested the woman's brother and charged him with murder.
The bodies of Kasturi, 25 and Basavaraju, 28, were discovered by the couple's domestic helps who found their front door ajar. They had been stabbed multiple times and their throats had been slit.
The woman's brother, Hanumantharayappa, had visited her on Saturday and was seen outside the house by their landlord.
The police, who are interrogating him, said caste was not a factor in the murders.
"Basavaraju and Kasturi had been living here for the last two years. Basavaraju was working as a tailor. From what we know now, on Saturday, Kasturi's brother came here. The house owner saw him at 7:30 pm," said a senior police officer, TR Suresh.
Kasturi and Basavaraju were from the same village and had been together for a long time, however her family got her married to a Hubli-based businessman.
Soon after, she ran away to be with Basavaraju and rented a flat off Tumkur Road just outside Bengaluru. But according to the police, Basavaraju was refusing to marry her.
Rajanna, their landlord, said, "They said they came from Koppal and that they had been married for around three years. When I asked why they shifted here, they said there was a big problem over land in the husband's family."
He said on Saturday evening he spotted a man Kasturi said was her brother. "I was sitting here at 7:30 and a tall man came. She (Kasturi) told me he was her brother and that he drove lorries," he said.