Kodagu quadruple murder: Police nab accused in Kerala

Accused arrested for brutal murder of family in Kodagu, Kerala police team swiftly apprehends suspect in neighbouring state.

The accused in the grisly murder of four members of a family in Kodagu was arrested by a special team of district police in neighbouring Kerala on Friday (March 28, 2025) night.

The accused has been identified as Girish, 38, husband of Nagi, one of the four persons found lying in a pool of blood. Nagi had been hacked to death with a matchete along with her daughter, Cauvery, 7, and grandparents Kariya and Gauri, both above 70 years of age.

After receiving information about the murders that had taken place in Balangadu region of Begur village in Kodagu’s Ponnampet taluk around 1.30 p.m. on March 28, senior police officials visited the spot along with a team of crime detection experts to gather clues and evidence.

Superintendent of Kodagu district police K. Ramarajan, who also visited the spot, said that a special team under Deputy Superintendent of Police, Virajpet Division, Mahesh Kumar S. was constituted for investigating the crime and tracing the accused after a case was registered at Ponnampet police station.

The accused, Girish, was the third husband of Nagi and the couple had been married for the last one year. He was staying with Nagi and their stepdaughter, Cauvery, in a solitary house which belonged to the latter’s grandparents, who hailed from a tribal community, in Balangadu region.

According to preliminary investigation by the police, Girish suspected that his wife had resumed her relationship with the second husband, Subramanya. He is suspected to have hacked his wife, step daughter and the wife’s elderly grandparents on Thursday (March 27) night and absconded.

The special team constituted by the police, however, managed to arrest him from Talapula in neighbouring Kerala within six hours of the crime being reported, said a statement issued by Kodagu district police.