2018 Bengaluru restaurateur murder: Life term for two killers on victims birthday

BENGALURU: Seven years after a restaurateur in JP Nagar was bludgeoned to death on the road late at night, a city court has sentenced the two accused for rigorous imprisonment for life. For the father of Siddarth Kaushal (26), the victim, the court verdict was bitter-sweet as it came on the birthday of his son. The convicts were identified as Girish (21) and Mahesh (19). Siddarth, a Bihar native and an engineering and MBA graduate who was running a hotel in JP Nagar, was murdered in the wee hours of June 26, 2018, in MICO Layout area. He was going towards Electronics City with a group of friends in his car. Enroute, he parked his car as the other friends who were on a bike were yet to come. At the same time, when Siddarth was urinating, the two accused who were on a two-wheeler deliberately hit him with the bike's mirror and went ahead. The victim told them in Hindi to 'look ahead and ride'. Frustrated over this, the accused picked a fight with the victim as he was an outsider. They escaped after attacking him with a blunt weapon. Siddarth was hospitalised but succumbed to injuries four days later. Following a complaint from one of Kaushal's friends, the MICO Layout police arrested the two accused. The verdict was announced on my son's birthday which was on October 24. The court has sentenced both the accused to rigorous life imprisonment and has also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 each. I thank the judiciary and the city police for giving us justice. We do not have anybody in Bengaluru. We even celebrated Diwali following the judgment. I thank the MICO Layout police for taking the case to a logic end, said Kaushalendra Pandey (58), the victim's father.