Bengaluru: A 39-year-old mother of three and her mother-in-law, aged about 59, were found murdered with their throats slit and multiple injuries on their faces at their house in Vasanth Nagar on Monday morning.
The deceased, Santhoshi Bai, and her daughter-in-law Latha Dinesh were at home with Latha’s one-and-a-half-year-old Khush, who was sleeping in a bedroom on the first floor. The perpetrators have made away with some gold ornaments, family members said. Both the women were homemakers and belonged to Jain community.
Around 11.15 am, Latha’s elder daughter Meenal (14) returned home after her mid-term exam and screamed her lungs out seeing her mother and grandmother lying in a pool of blood inside the house. She ran outside and informed her neighbours, who in turn alerted the police. There was a Hoysala patrol vehicle parked on the main road and the police constable rushed to the spot and alerted his superiors.
Santhoshi Bai’s husband Sampath and their son Dinesh left for their shop in Balepet from their house around 10 am on Monday. They are wholesale chemical dealers.
Latha called her husband around 10.30 am to say that two people had come home. But as his phone was busy, she called her husband’s uncle Anand, who works in the same shop. She told him about the two visitors, whose surnames ended with Lal, police sources said.
A few minutes later, Dinesh got another call, this time from the police informing about the murder of his wife and his mother. Dinesh, Sampath, and Anandn rushed to their house on the 11th main on Millers Road.
The bodies were lying in the hall and kitchen and the bedroom was ransacked with the jewellery box lying open outside. The family members said that the value of the jewellery stolen is not known.
Perpetrators known to victims, police suspect
City Police Commissioner N.S. Megharikh, Additional Commissioner of Police (West) Charan Reddy and DCP Sandeep Patil visited the spot and inspected the crime scene.
Dog squad and Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) squads did their rounds and experts were seen collecting evidence from the spot. “There is no sign of forced entry and we suspect that someone known to the victims have committed the murders,” said an investigating officer.
The house has two doors – one an iron-grilled one, while the other a normal wooden door. The victims have seen the murderers through the grill door and let them in, indicating that they were known to the victims, the officer said.
Though family members alleged that gold ornaments have gone missing, hinting that it could be a crime for gain, the police are investigating all angles, including familial discord, business disputes, financial row etc. The police are also going through the CCTV footage from nearby areas to get clues about the murderers. “We have got some clues and we will arrest them soon,” said a senior police officer.
The nature of the injuries inflicted on the victims reveals that the perpetrators were not professionals, but probably first-timers, a police source said.
Both the bodies were shifted to Bowring Hospital for postmortem and Latha’s husband Dinesh was summoned to the High Grounds police station to formally register a complaint.
Sampath, Santhoshi Bai, Dinesh, Latha and their two daughters Prachi and Meenal and their son Khush lived in their own ground-plus-first floor house in Vasanth Nagar for the last 25 to 30 years. Earlier, they stayed at Frazer Town, a relative said. As the news spread, Jain community members arrived at the house and consoled the father and the son.
