Bengaluru triple murder accused Kenneth taken into custody in Puducherry

In a major breakthrough in the sensational K.R. Puram triple murder case, the Bengaluru police took absconding accused, Kenneth, into custody in Puducherry.

Somasundar, 55, his wife Muthulakshmi, 48, and their younger daughter, Supriya, 20, were allegedly murdered at an apartment in Seegehalli in the K.R. Puram Police Station limits in east Bengaluru late on the night of June 22 by the couple’s elder daughter and her male friend. Their bodies were found in a flat at Sai Green Apartment in Dhamnika Layout, Seegehalli.

Somasundar was a software professional, and Supriya was pursuing her graduation.

The K.R. Puram police had earlier arrested 24-year-old Shweta, the elder daughter, at a railway station in Puducherry, while Kenneth, her male friend, was absconding. Six special teams were deployed across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to track him down.

According to police sources, a team from the K.R. Puram Police Station apprehended Kenneth on Thursday night following sustained technical surveillance and investigation.

The police officials said that after the alleged murders, Kenneth and Shweta travelled separately. They deliberately parted ways to evade the police. They reached Puducherry separately.

First, the police managed to trace Shweta, and detained her in Puducherry. Later, based on technical evidence and continuous tracking of Kenneth's movements, the police were able to locate Kenneth.

Kenneth is expected to be brought to Bengaluru for further interrogation. The police are likely to question both Kenneth and Shweta to establish the sequence of events, ascertain the motive behind the killings, and determine the role played by each accused in the crime.

According to a senior police officer, Kenneth took shelter in beach shacks in Puducherry, believing he could evade detection as such accommodations generally do not require guests to produce identity proof.

Officials said that multiple special investigation teams were constituted immediately after the murders, with each team assigned a specific task. While one team tracked the movements of the two accused, another analysed CCTV footage and carried out technical surveillance. Investigators also explored multiple angles to establish the motive and reconstruct the sequence of events, the officials said.

The police said Shweta, who was in a live-in relationship with Kenneth, had accumulated debts of around ₹30 lakh with him and they had frequently quarrelled with her family over a share in the family property, which is suspected to be the reason behind the murder.