BENGALURU: Nearly a month after a 17-year-old girl and her father disappeared within days of each other, police in Karnataka’s Tumakuru district have cracked the case. Investigators say the father murdered his daughter over her choice of partner before going into hiding to evade arrest.
The accused, 48-year-old farmer Timmarayappa from Nimbemaradahalli village in Sira taluk, was reportedly opposed to his daughter T Meghana’s relationship with an electrician who was closely related to Meghana’s mother, Nirmala.
While Nirmala supported the match, Timmarayappa strongly objected to it.
According to police, on April 16, Timmarayappa asked Meghana to accompany him to the family’s farmland. There, an argument broke out over her relationship. In a fit of rage, he allegedly strangled the teenager.
Father allegedly dumped body in well, later buried it in dry lakebed
Police said Timmarayappa initially threw Meghana’s unconscious body into a farm well. Later that evening, fearing the body might resurface, he returned to the spot, retrieved the body, and under the cover of darkness carried it to a nearby dry lakebed, where he buried her in a shallow grave.
The next day, Timmarayappa and Nirmala jointly filed a missing person complaint regarding Meghana.
A week later, on April 23, Timmarayappa himself disappeared, taking his motorcycle and some cash from home. Nirmala then approached the police again to report her husband missing.
Investigators initially struggled to make progress as both Meghana’s and Timmarayappa’s mobile phones had been switched off from the day they were reported missing.
As the trail went cold, a special police team began combing nearby villages for leads. The breakthrough reportedly came on the night of May 15, when police received information that Timmarayappa had visited a friend in a village located around 3 km from his home.
The friend told police that Timmarayappa had been moving between different taluks on his motorcycle and sleeping at temples and bus stands to avoid detection. He had also allegedly purchased a new SIM card and a second-hand mobile phone from a shop in Kadabagere.
According to police, the friend further revealed that Timmarayappa had been seeking advice on how to obtain anticipatory bail in a murder case.
Using the new phone number provided by the friend, investigators quickly traced Timmarayappa — only to discover that the “missing” father had quietly returned to his own village.
Police detained him on Saturday. Officials said he initially pretended to be a grieving parent and denied any involvement, but later confessed to the murder during sustained interrogation.
