A 53-year-old Indian-American techie was arrested after he walked into a Northern Carolina police station in the US, along with a dead body in his car on Monday.
Media reports from the US said that Shankar Nagappa Hangud, a resident of Roseville, California is said to have killed three other people, all of whom are reportedly related to him.
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PTI reported Roseville Police Department Captain Joshua Simon as saying Hangud was in custody at the South Placer Jail after city detectives brought him back from Siskiyou County on Monday night and would face four charges of murder.
The report said the he told the police he had killed people at his apartment in the Placer County city of Roseville after he drove to the police station in Mt. Shasta a little after noon on Monday.
While the police said that the exact motive of the murder is not known, reports say it could be finance related.
The Modesto Bee reported that Hangud’s tax record showed that he faced a federal tax lien of $178,603 from the Internal Revenue Service this year.
Hangud’s LinkedIn profile revealed that he was a a data specialist and had worked for several companies in the Sacramento area, PTI reported.
The police said that Hangud may have driven around in unknown places on Northern Carolina before landing up at the Mt Shasta police station.
Simon was quoted by The Sacramento Bee as saying, “This incident has touched the lives of many in the area... It’s a very sad, sad situation.”
“The suspect himself drove to the Mt Shasta Police Department with one of the victims in his car and made a confession to them to start off this investigation,” Simon said
Mt. Shasta Police chief Parish Cross said he and another officer went outside to the car to verify what the man had said was true.
“These are things that just don’t happen everyday and when they do it is upsetting,” said Cross.
While the Hangud’s victims have not been named by the police, reports say that two of them could be minors.
Hangud was produced in court on Wednesday, wearing a safety suit, where he first refused an attorney and wanted to represent himself. However, on the advice of lawyers he accepted to be represented by a public attorney.
Martin Jones, an attorney with the Placer County Public Defender’s Office, said that Hangud’s confession had already complicated his defence.
The Sacramento Bee quoted Jones as saying, “He wanted to represent himself. I told him that’s not a good idea... We all believe it’s a bad idea considering the potential consequences.”
Hangud, who has been taken back to Placer County and booked into jail, was the sole suspect in the killings and there appeared to be no ongoing threat, police said.
(With PTI inputs)