It was 1990, a time when `200 went a good distance. For struggling 20-year-old pupil Venkatesh Mahadeva Vaidya, that sum represented hope — borrowed cash paid to a stranger promising a authorities job.
The person, nevertheless, vanished in a single day, and a case filed by Vaidya lay unsolved for 35 years. Till final week, when a intelligent courier ruse lastly led to the seize of the accused, B Keshavamurthy Rao, now aged 72.
For the Sirsi rural police in Karnataka’s Uttara Kannada district, this marked the closure of the station’s oldest pending case.
It started, although, with a component of likelihood.
Police inspector Manjunath Gowda, who had taken cost on the police station simply two months in the past, occurred to be going by means of chilly circumstances when one caught his eye.
“This was the oldest pending case of the station. I felt it was attention-grabbing because the case was filed over `200,” he instructed The Indian Specific.
It additionally helped that Gowda had labored in a city Rao used to stay in. “I shared some particulars with my community in Kundapura and came upon that he had left the city greater than 20 years again,” Gowda mentioned.
The inspector managed to get in contact with Rao’s family members and received his contact quantity. Police traced his location to Bengaluru, the place he had develop into a Kannada activist and was dwelling alone. Usually, right here’s the place the path would have stopped. Police in Sirsi weren’t able to journey 400 km to Bengaluru over a `200 case.
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That is the place a second ingredient of likelihood got here in.
Within the final week of June, police constable Maruti Gowda, who can be a kabbadi participant, was headed to the state capital to attend the annual police sports activities meet. Inspector Gowda instructed him to test about Rao after the meet ended.
Maruti got here by means of, because of slightly improvisation. “I referred to as him below the guise of a courier workplace worker and confirmed the identify. I requested him to come back to the courier workplace to gather a parcel. As soon as he arrived, I picked him up and dropped at Sirsi,” the constable instructed The Indian Specific.
For Vaidya, who had lengthy moved on, this was a distinct type of closure.
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It was in February 1990 that Vaidya, then a B Com pupil doing odd jobs to fund his schooling, met Rao, thought of “influential” in Sirsi.
Vaidya instructed The Indian Specific: “My mother and father had been labourers. BK Rao promised to get me a authorities job and demanded a bribe of `200. That was huge cash then. His supply appeared promising. So I took a mortgage from an aged individual and paid Rao.”
With Rao promptly going lacking, Venkatesh filed a police grievance. “I cried as a result of I misplaced such an enormous amount of cash,” he mentioned. “I then moved on in life.”
Vaidya accomplished his B.Com and went on to work with the State Financial institution of India (SBI). He voluntarily retired as a chief supervisor of an SBI department in Bengaluru. Each two or three years, he would get the occasional name from police searching for details about Rao.
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Reduce to the primary week of July 2025 and Vaidya acquired a name he had by no means anticipated.
The Sirsi rural police had lastly arrested Rao. “Neglect arrest, I by no means thought Rao can be even seen once more,” he mentioned.
Final week, Rao appeared earlier than a court docket and apologised to Vaidya. “He’s 72 years outdated now… `200 was some huge cash then, however not now. On humanitarian grounds, I forgave him,” mentioned the retired banker.
Contemplating Vaidya’s determination to withdraw the case, the court docket ordered its closure.
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Vaidya recalled: “At any time when an SP or Dy SP would take cost, I’d get a name from Sirsi rural police station asking if there was any details about Rao. So, I’m certain this case was bothering the police as nicely.”
Through the probe, police discovered that Rao was a Kannada activist in Bengaluru. “He has been a part of a number of protests and was extensively coated in a number of the protests standing subsequent to activist Vatal Nagaraj and different leaders. Nonetheless, he suffered losses in his enterprise and lived alone,” Inspector Gowda mentioned.