According to the police, Mandaralingam and Raja hailed from Villivakkam in Chennai. They came to Bangalore in search of a job. Both were employed by Capgemini as IT consultants.
“They became very close and stayed at the same paying guest (PG) accommodation,” the police said. But the friendship was short-lived.
The Mahadevapura police said their relation soured to such an extent that Mandaralingam and Raja began accusing each other of character assassination. “There was also an added dimension of shared financial arrangements between them, which led to personal rivalry,” the police said.
The conflict culminated in Raja's murder on May 28. Raja, having returned from a trip to Villivakkam, was resting in his room while Mandaralingam and other boarders left for work. On their return later in the evening, they found Raja dead with minor injuries and blood oozing out of nostrils. Mandaralingam rushed to the Mahadevapura police station and lodged a complaint of suspicious death.
Post-mortem revealed that Raja died because of internal injuries to the skull. Based on the report, the police filed a case of murder.
The police was suspicious of Mandaralingam right from the beginning. It emerged during investigation that Mandaralingam had returned to the PG 10 minutes after leaving for work, an information which he withheld from the police.
Sources said this piece of information was not mentioned in the complaint. The police subsequently kept a close watch on Mandaralingam.
During interrogation on Thursday, Mandaralingam confessed to killing Raja by hitting him with a block. “He returned to the PG, where he had an argument with Raja, which led to the murder,” the police said.
The police said they are investigating whether others were involved in the murder.
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