One murder and two kidnappings: How a Bengaluru gang funded their New Year holiday to Goa.

A desperate attempt to ignite a big New Year’s Eve celebration in Goa went horribly wrong when a trio from Bengaluru kidnapped two guys and murdered one. Sanjay, Anand, and Hanumanth, three young men, kidnapped a carpenter named Kishan Kumar and a businessman named Gurusiddappa and murdered them. The crimes were discovered after authorities launched an inquiry into Kishan’s kidnapping.

The tragic drama began on December 25 when Sanjay, Anand, and Hanumanth of Bengaluru wrongly abducted 24-year-old carpenter Kishan Kumar, believing he was the proprietor of an interior design company. After realizing their blunder, the trio played a cat-and-mouse game with the genuine owner, Shivachandra Pandit. After learning that Shivachandra was in Kundapura, the trio, together with Kishan, went to visit. However, by this point, Shivachandra had left for Bengaluru.

In his police complaint, Kishan’s employer Shivachandra stated, “On December 25, I received a call requesting that some work be done at Bengaluru’s Palace Hotel. Since I was in Kundapura, I sent Kishan instead.” However, upon arrival, Kishan was kidnapped by three people. The kidnappers demanded Rs 1 lakh from Kishan, but when he didn’t have any money, one of the men, Sanjay, attacked him with a knife.

The first ransom demand of Rs 1 lakh was reduced to a frantic appeal for Rs 10,000, but they were unable to obtain anything because Kishan had no money. The trio then decided to pay a visit to Kishan’s workplace in Kundapura. During their travel, the three accused stopped at a food restaurant, during which Kishan managed to flee. On January 2, he filed a complaint with Bengaluru’s Jnanabharati police station.

Undeterred by their initial failed effort, the kidnappers targeted Gurusiddappa, a businessman in Peenya who deals in automobile spare parts, on December 30. Gurusiddappa, a customer of the main accused Sanjay, a mechanic, was friendly with him. They seized him, forced him to call his wife on his phone, and asked her to give the money to Sanjay as a loan.