bengaluru an interfaith love story ended on a tragic note with the girls father and his associates allegedly murdering her 24yearold boyfriend in kudur magadi taluk ramanagara district on tuesday morningk lakshmipathi a resident of basavanahalli near nelamangala was allegedly strangled to death by nizamuddin 45 and his elder son sikandar 20 goods auto drivers who have been arrested and their associates ibrat and auto mohammed who are on the run all the accused are residents of islampura near basavanahalli lakshmipathi a garment factory employee and parttime auto driver was killed in front of his brotherprobe revealed lakshmipathi was in love with nizamuddins younger daughter and both the families were against the relationship the two eloped last month to tie the knot but returned after nizamuddin convinced his daughter saying he would get them married on tuesday morning nizamuddin and the three others took lakshmipathi and his elder brother nataraj to a deserted spot in kanakenahallilaya a village near kudur on the pretext of marriage talks where they strangled lakshmipathi to death said superintendent of police ramanagara s girishk nataraj elder brother of lakshmipathi claimed in his complaint that the accused mercilessly strangled his brother as he watched helplessly around 10am on tuesday nizamuddin took my brother lakshmipathi to his house saying they would decide the wedding date and other issues i accompanied them sikandar and the others said we should go out and hold the discussion lakshmipathi spoke to the girl telling her they were going to discuss the matter nataraj saidwe travelled in nizamuddins auto and reached kanakenahallilaya he took us to a prayer hall and then to the foot of a rocky mountain he made us drink alcohol a little later they started abusing lakshmipathi citing religious differences and told him he shouldnt even dream of marrying the girl when he resisted the four started beating him up they pulled out his belt and as i watched sikandar and ibrat strangled my brother to death they threatened to kill me too i ran away and hid in a field nizamuddin came looking for methey grabbed me and bundled me into the auto they pushed me out near kunigal cross and told me not to reveal anything or else they would kill my other family members nataraj a dailywage worker said in the complaintby evening nataraj returned home and narrated the incident to his father kumar and brotherinlaw gangadhar they came to nelamangala rural police station and explained what had happened we were shocked to hear their version and immediately passed on the message to our counterparts at kudur station a shocked nataraj was unable to recall the crime location at first then he told us the body could be lying within 500 metres of the prayer hall the body was traced around 10pm and by then we had nabbed nizamuddin and sikandar who confessed to the crime said an investigator from nelamangala police station