BENGALURU: With the arrest of four people, the West Division police have cracked the murder of a 65-year-old home alone woman Lakshmi Rajam, who was murdered for gain last Wednesday at her residence in BEML Layout in R.R. Nagar.
The main accused Kishore, 30, a BSc Computer Science graduate and a family friend of Lakhsmi, was arrested along with his three associates Gopi (21), Raghavendra (33) and Guru (31), all city residents, on Saturday. According to the police, Lakshmi knew Kishore ever since his childhood.
Lakshmi’s husband Sathya Murthy, who died four year ago, and Kishore's father Bhaskar Prasad were colleagues at BEML in KGF. Kishore was a frequent visitor to Lakshmi’s house for the past 20 years. His father Bhaskar earlier was living in the same area, but later shifted to J.P. Nagar after renting out his house.
Kishore was unemployed and along with his associates began searching houses to rob, posing as computer mechanic. Investigations revealed that they were trying to identify houses occupied by lonely women and also used to check whether any CCTV cameras were located nearby.
Earlier, they had made three similar attempts, which ended in failure as CCTV cameras were installed. Kishore grew desperate and decided to kill Lakshmi.
“On May 31, Kishore went to Lakshmi’s house and she went to the kitchen to get him coffee. Just then three people entered the house and hit her with an iron rod from behind. They had gagged her using a cloth and tape and choked her to death using a pillow. They then robbed her gold ornaments and checked the wardrobes, but fled on hearing noised from a nearby house.”
While questioning neighbours the police came to know that on May 27 Kishore had come to Lakshmi’s house. When they made enqiries with finance companies located nearby, the police found out that Kishore had pledged gold with a Muthoot Finance outlet after the incident. Based on this information the police arrested the accused. The accused have been remanded to judicial custody.
