A 35-year-old unemployed man and his two friends have been arrested on charges of murdering a 55-year-old woman on April 2 and fleeing with Rs 16 lakh. The accused are Kiran Kumar of JJ Layout in Kachamaranahalli and his friends Sheik Imran, 23, an auto driver, and R Venkatesh, 52, a plumber, (clockewise in pic) both residents of Govindapura. Kiran Kumar allegedly lured Sunita Ramprasad, a resident of Malleswaram, promising to get high interest for her investment. On April 2, when the woman went to his house in Varthur with Rs 16 lakh, Kiran and his friends took her to a vacant house and smothered her to death, police said. Kiran was arrested from Goa, where he was living in a rented house and spending the looted money. Other two accused are a plumber and an auto driver, friends of Kiran. A bachelorette, Sunita frequently used Imran’s auto for commuting. Imran had introduced Kiran as a financier. “Sunita wanted to invest some money for interest and had expressed the same with Imran. Kiran claimed that he knew many private bank officials and promised to get her a higher rate of interest. Trusting him, she went to his house with the cash,” police said. Kiran lived with his wife on the ground floor of a three-storied building. The house owner had given the keys of the vacant houses on the two other floors to Kiran asking him to show them to those wanting to rent them. “Kiran took her to the second-floor house where Imran and Venkatesh arrived later. Kiran asked Sunita to hand over the money but Sunita sought to see the details of the bank where he would be depositing it. When Sunita refused to give the cash, the trio smothered her to death and fled,” an investigating officer said. The three tried to dispose of the body but failed as the house was in a crowded area. Sharing the money, Imran and Venkatesh fled. “Kiran ran away with his share. His wife grew anxious as Kiran’s mobile phone was switched off. After enquiring with family members and friends, she called the house owner asking him whether he had heard of Kiran,” police said. By then, three days had passed and a foul smell started emanating from the locked house. Neighbours alerted the house owner and he called the police control room. Cops broke open the door and found the decomposed body. By then, Sunita’s family had filed a missing person complaint with Malleswaram police. They identified the body and filed a complaint against Kiran. Sunita’s cousins were aware that she had gone to meet Kiran to invest money. “By then, Kiran’s wife told us that her husband had gone incommunicado since April 2. We traced him to Goa,” police said. In Goa, Kiran had taken a one-bedroom house on rent for a month by paying Rs 25,000. He had told the house owner that he was a businessman and had come to Goa to spend holidays. Based on Kiran’s statement, Imran and Venkatesh too were arrested.