As police intensify its investigation into the murder case of 29-year-old Bengaluru woman Mahalakshmi, whose dismembered body was found stuffed into a refrigerator in her flat, her estranged husband Hemant Das spoke up about her illicit affair and claimed that her lover could be involved in her alleged killing.
According to a report by India Today, Das said Mahalakshmi had an affair with Ashraf, who is from Uttarakhand, and he could be behind her murder.
“I suspect one man called Ashraf. I filed a complaint against him at the Nelamangala police station once. Post the complaint, it was mandated that he must not come to Bengaluru. But I don’t know where else they went…,” Das said.
Detailing further, Das alleged that a few months ago, he had filed a case against Ashraf at a local police station in Bengaluru after he got to know of the extra-marital affair.
Who is Ashraf, Bengaluru woman’s alleged lover?
According to Das, Ashraf works at a barber shop and he and Mahalakshmi were having an affair about which he got to know in April or May 2023.
“We filed a complaint because I came to know of the extra-marital affair. It was not a suspicion, I knew it.. I came to know of the affair in April or May 2023. Mahalakshmi hadn’t informed me of anything about Ashraf. I wasn’t in continuous touch with her…,” Das further added.
Das, who works at a mobile phone shop, also said that he had not met Mahalakshmi for about 25–30 days. They last met when she visited him at the shop.
Mahalakshmi had filed case against her husband
As per a police officer from the Nelamangala Police station, Mahalakshmi had filed a complaint against Das in February alleging that he had assaulted her.
Bengaluru woman murder case similar to Shraddha Walkar’s
The Bengaluru Police recovered Mahalakshi’s body from her one-room flat in Vyalikaval area of Bengaluru, Karnataka on September 22. Her body was chopped in over 50 pieces and was stored in a single-door refrigerator.
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50 body pieces, foul smell: How shocking murder of Bengaluru woman found inside refrigerator unravels
The case has parallels to the brutal killing of 27-year-old Shraddha Walkar in Delhi’s Mehrauli in May 2022. She was allegedly strangled to death by her live-in partner, 29-year-old Aftab Poonawala, who later chopped her body into 35 pieces and kept them in a 300-litre fridge for almost three weeks before dumping them across the neighbourhood.
Prime suspect in Bengaluru woman murder identified
On Monday (September 23), Bengaluru Police commissioner B Dayananda informed that the cops have identified the prime suspect in the case and efforts were underway to arrest him.
“He’s an outsider. We can’t give more information as of now as it may help the accused,” the police commissioner further said.
Meanwhile, before the Bengaluru Police Commissioner’s media briefing on Monday, Karnataka home minister G Parameshwara said that the cops suspect a man reportedly from West Bengal to be behind the murder but added that more evidence is needed to confirm his role.
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Bengaluru woman murder prime suspect identified, is an ‘outsider’, say police. Is he from West Bengal?
“The police have collected a lot of information, a lot of clues. One individual is also been…kind of they say he is the one. Unless we collect more information we can’t really say. He is from West Bengal they say,” ANI quoted Parameshwara as saying.
Mahalakshmi started alone for nine months
Mahalakshmi and Das were married for six years and have a daughter. They started living separately about nine months ago due to domestic disputes.
“For the last nine months, we were separated and I do not know whether she was in contact with the man. When she separated, he was also told not to meet her but I did not know if he met her. For the first four months, my daughter stayed with her (Mahalakshmi) and later she lived with me in Nelamangala,” a report by The Indian Express quoted Das as saying.
He further alleged that Mahalakshmi became incommunicado on September 4.
With inputs from agencies.
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