Continuing from the previous piece:

We had left our protagonist Gokul in possession of his wife Anuradha’s confession to her extra-marital dalliance and contemplating the imponderables – getting rid of his wife, hanging on to his dear two-year-old daughter, squaring things with his father-in-law who was an ex-cop, getting together with Latha, Latha’s husband conundrum and so on.

First move, Gokul created another fake but convincing Facebook id of ASHA the astrologer. [Remember, he had been very successful with the fake identity of a ‘Baba” and obtained his wife’s confession of her affair?] He coined ASHA as an acronym for Astrology, Spirituality, Humility, Attention. This profile Asha also managed to gain the confidence of Anuradha over a series of emails. ‘Asha’ convinced Anuradha that if she posed nude with her paramour (student lover) and send the photographs over, she would perform a yagna (a fire-ritual) over them that would render Gokul a silent spectator and she could freely continue her love life without the hassle of a divorce, child custody battles and so on. Around end-2013, ‘Asha’ received photos of his wife with her lover in a shower in a hotel room. Anuradha had booked the room for arranging these photographs for ‘Asha.’ This is how Gokul managed a plethora of incriminating evidence against his wife, Anuradha.

Meanwhile, Gokul kept visiting Bengaluru to meet Latha. Finally, in 2014, he managed a transfer to Bengaluru and also took up residence in the same housing complex as Latha. The two families became friends, so much so that Gokul managed to get a duplicate key to the house of Latha and her husband, Saju Jose.

On June 27, 2015, Gokul, as ‘Asha,’ convinced his wife Anuradha to get thoroughly inebriated so that she would become eligible and receptive for the Mahayagna (grand fire-ritual). Anuradha consumed more than half a bottle of whiskey. Then Gokul murdered his wife by hitting her on the back of her head with a metal Ganesha idol. Mission accomplished, he went to sleep. After a short while, he got up, checked on the body of his wife and suspecting that she might still be alive, again bashed her on the forehead brutally and repeatedly with the idol to ensure that she was dead. He passed it off as an accident/ suicide. Gokul had rubbed her head against a table to look like she had hit the table while falling. Around 4 AM, he started calling family, relatives and friends to inform them that there was a tragic accidental death. Although the local Police station was suspicious, his father-in-law (Anuradha’s father), receiving all the emails and photographs of Anuradha in compromising position from ‘Baba’ and ‘Asha’ was convinced that his own daughter was of loose character and actually vicious. Gokul must be having tremendous convincing powers and his father-in-law was certain that it was an accident/ suicide. In fact, as the father-in-law had been a Deputy Superintendent of Police and argued with the local Police against any other theory, the case was closed as a suicide.

Although Gokul had managed to get close to Latha and her husband, he had not yet been successful in getting her to resume a full-scale romance with him or leave her husband, Saju Jose. Gokul created a fake identity in the name of Saju on Facebook and posted messages calling for jihad in the name of ISIS. Gokul also created for himself an identity as the Archbishop of Bengaluru and started sending letters to Latha. In the initial letters, the ‘Archbishop’ advised Latha not to leave Saju. This earned the trust and respect of Latha who didn’t suspect anything. However, somewhere down the line in the exchange of letters, the ‘Archbishop’ started advising Latha to divorce Saju. The ‘Archbishop’ also wrote to Saju informing him that Latha had mentioned in her confessionals regarding her desire to leave Saju. Despite the ‘Archbishop’’s advice, Saju was not willing for the divorce.

Not succeeding in the ‘Archbishop’ ploy, Gokul bought a SIM card and started sending WhatsApp messages to Saju in the name of ‘Salman’ belonging to a terrorist organization. Using the duplicate key to Saju’s house, he managed to plant a lot of incriminating literature in Saju’s house. He also photocopied Saju’s documents (passport, photographs, etc.) and, using them, procured a SIM in Saju’s name. After all this was in place, he tracked the flights through the internet and sent these alarming messages to the airports from a mobile with the SIM in Saju’s name. The details of the flights were so specific that the authorities were bound to seriously act upon the messages. What he was counting on was that Saju would be promptly arrested and put away for life, leaving him and Latha to start a new life together.

As Saju happened to be out of town, Latha approached Gokul to accompany her to the Police station when summoned. He accompanied her faithfully and hid the phone with Saju’s SIM in the car. This location of the phone and the wi-fi he had used for sending the WhatsApp messages eventually gave him away. The murder charge was added to the original SUASCA charge.

I examined Gokul in Police custody at length and was amazed at the depravity of an extremely diabolic and intelligent mind. I was also impressed by the brilliance of the investigative skills of a young SP level officer of Bengaluru and his consummate interrogation technique. These were times when there was robust and seamless professional cooperation amongst Police forces of different states and the Centre – unlike now, when there are unending cop-vs-cop wars.

Well, Gokul wanted to eliminate his wife and implicate his sweetheart’s husband and set about it meticulously over a period of five years. He got his wish and nearly got away with it but I don’t think he was any the happier for it. Last heard, Latha was going to testify against him in Court and hers might be the clinching evidence. Be careful what you wish for … because you just might get it!