A case similar to the Shraddha Walkar murder case has been reported from India’s tech capital, Bengaluru. A 29-year-old woman was found murdered in her Vyalikaval home in Bengaluru with her body dismembered and stored in a refrigerator.
The incident came to light on Saturday after the neighbours noticed a foul smell from the single-bedroom apartment and alerted her family. The case has sent shockwaves across the country.
Here’s all we know about the case.
The gruesome murder
The victim has been identified as H Mahalakshmi Das, an employee at a mall and a resident of Pipeline Road in Vyalikaval.
It was the foul smell that drew the neighbours’ attention. They notified Mahalaxmi’s brother, Ukkum Singh.
Mahalakshmi’s mother and elder sister entered the apartment and found the front door bolted from outside. There were insects and blood stains on the refrigerator.
The family opened the single-door refrigerator, where they discovered the body dismembered and passed out from the shock.
The body was reportedly cut into close to 50 pieces and stored inside the 165-litre refrigerator that was turned on.
According to The New Indian Express, the victim’s severed legs were placed on the top shelf of the fridge, the rest of the body parts in the middle and her in the bottom part.
The strong odour caused some police personnel to throw up, while others who arrived at the crime scene double-masked up.
Additional Commissioner of Police (West Zone) N Satheesh Kumar said, “It appeared to have been done four to five days ago.” He said the dog squad and the forensic experts arrived and the investigation started.
The Bengaluru police have registered an FIR under Section 103 (1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita in the murder.
The motive for the killing is still unknown. The victim’s body was sent for an autopsy on Sunday, and the results are awaited.
Also read: Why a 24-year-old woman was brutally stabbed to death in Bengaluru PG
Maggots near fridge, foul smell
In her complaint, Mahalakshmi’s mother, Meena Rana (58), said they were informed about the foul odour a day before the murder was discovered.
A neighbour of the victim had informed her brother Ukkum about the smell.
“On Friday, my eldest daughter Lakshmi informed me what the neighbour told Ukkum Singh, but it was already 7 pm, we decided to visit Mahalakshmi’s place the next day. On Saturday, I visited the house with Lakshmi and her husband Imran and found the door was locked from outside,” she said, in her complaint, adding that they entered the apartment using a spare key from another neighbour.
“When we entered the apartment, we found that it was completely ransacked, with clothes, slippers, bags, and a suitcase dumped in the living room.”
“There were some maggots near the refrigerator and it looked as if there were blood stains as well. Upon opening the refrigerator, I ran outside in shock to inform my son-in-law Imran. He called the police immediately,” she said.
About the victim
The 29-year-old victim, Mahalakshmi, worked as a team leader at Fashion Factory, a clothing outlet in Malleshwaram. According to News18, she had not been to work for the past two weeks.
She was living in a rented house on the first floor of a G+3 building for the last five months.
Hailing from Nepal’s Tikapur village in Kathmandu, her family had moved to Bengaluru about 35 years ago.
Besides Mahalakshmi, Meena Rana and her husband Charan Singh have three children: Lakshmi, Ukkum, and Naresh.
According to her mother, Mahalakshmi was married to Hemant Das, who lives with their four-year-old daughter in Nelamangala. He runs a mobile phone accessories store. Das arrived at the spot soon after learning about the incident.
The estranged husband has informed police that he had filed a complaint against Mahalakshmi with Nelamangala police in February this year after she allegedly assaulted him for not giving her money. He also told reporters that Mahalakshmi had also filed a complaint against him earlier over a marital row.
He said that Mahalakshmi separated from him in October 2023 after he allegedly found out about her affair. Mahalakshmi then rented the apartment in Vyalikaval at the time.
The victim’s brother Ukkum and his wife Deepika reportedly stayed at her place for about 15 days. However, after a spat with Mahalakshmi, Ukkum and his wife shifted to Marathahalli, as per Indian Express.
The victim’s mother claimed she frequently visited her daughter to check on her.
As per her statement, the last communication between her and the victim was on September 2, when the daughter said she would visit them soon.
Special teams formed, one detained
Four special teams have been formed to probe the case.
As per the News18 report, the police found a blue suitcase and they were probing if the assailant wanted to move the body out of the place.
The police believe the murder might have occurred around September 2, the day when Mahalaxmi’s phone was last active. They are also investigating the possibility of multiple killers.
“It is surprising that none of her family members tried to contact her for so long. We will question them on this,” an officer said, as per The Times of India.
As per The Hindu, an employee of a men’s parlour nearby, who was allegedly close to the deceased, has been detained. He reportedly visited Mahalakshmi, the day before she was murdered.
The victim’s estranged husband also suspects the man’s role in the murder.
The police are also probing two other men’s roles, one who used to drop and pick her up to and from her workplace, the other one is being questioned as he was close to the victim at work.
According to another report by The Times of India, the suspect, who hails from an eastern state and works in Bengaluru, reportedly confessed to one of his family members about killing Mahalakshmi and has gone into hiding in West Bengal. The teams were sent to the state for leads.
The police also believe that the body was chopped somewhere else and then brought to the apartment because no blood stains in the toilet, bedroom or hall were found.
Similar horrific case
The case has parallels to the gruesome murder of 27-year-old Shraddha Walkar in Delhi’s Mehrauli in May 2022.
She was strangled by her live-in partner
Aftab Amir Poonawala, 29, and her body was chopped into 35 pieces.
The body parts were kept in a 300-litre fridge for almost three weeks at the residence before dumping them across the city.
With inputs from agencies
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