Bengaluru: The double murders of two top IT executives in Bengaluru is the aftermath of an intense rat race among two broadband firms vying with each other for market monopoly, the preliminary police investigation has found.

Bengaluru Police has taken into custody Arun Kumar Azad, owner of G-Net broadband firm following suspicion that he gave the quotation to a gang to carry out the daylight murders of the Malayali Chief Executive Officer and the Managing Director of Internet services company Aironics Media.

Arun, who was returning from Delhi, was taken into custody at the Bengaluru airport. Three persons, including main accused ‘Joker’ Felix (Shabareesh-27), were earlier arrested in the double murder case. Vinay Reddy and Santhosh were the two others held.

R Vinukumar, CEO of Aeronix Media Internet Services Company at Pamba Extension in Hebbal Kempapura and a native of Kuzhimattam in Panachikkad, Kottayam, and Phanindra Subramanya, MD, were hacked to death at their office on Tuesday. The bodies of the two were handed over to their relatives after post-mortem. The deceased Vinu Kumar is also the second accused in the Apple Tree money chain fraud case in Kottayam.

According to police, the motive behind the murder was a rivalry between two fiber net companies operating in the broadband industry. Phanindra and Vinu Kumar, who started their own company after leaving G-Net, lured their former colleagues to Aeronix by offering them higher salaries. The launch of low-cost internet packages by Aeronix was also a setback for G-Net. The quotation to kill was believed to be given following this. Felix, who led the quotation team, is also a former employee of Aeronix. The enmity following his dismissal from the company is also being probed.

Accused in chit fund scam
According to police, Vinu Kumar was an accused in the Apple Tree chit fund scam in Kottayam in 2013. The case pertains to the alleged fraud committed after collecting Rs 36 crore in the name of Apple Tree chit fund from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. Vinu Kumar was the executive director of the company.

'Joker' Felix an Instagram star
Felix's Instagram post after committing the murder had hints of the crime. “The people of the earth are haughty and deceitful. I've hurt some bad people among them. No harm has been done to the good guys,” the note said. Felix had posted the news of the murder on Instagram at around 10 pm while trying to escape on a train after committing the double murder. He also runs a YouTube channel called 'JF Media', which posts Kannada rap songs.