Karkala: Man Hacks Wife to Death, Commits Suicide
Daijiworld Media Network - Karkala
Karkala, Jun 20: A woman was hacked to death by her husband at Doopadakatte here on Wednesday June 20. The man later hanged himself.
The deceased are Jagannath Poojary (40) from Puttur and his wife Malini Shetty (35).
Malini had divorced her first husband, from whom she had two children Nithesh (14) and Nischit (11). She later married Jagannath.
The incident occured after both the children left for school in the morning. As there is no other house close by, the murder and subsequent suicide did not come to light immediately.
The crime was noticed at around 11.30 am by a local who had come to collect his chicken which had been tied in front of Jagannath's house. He called out to Jagannath and Malini, but got no response. As the front door was locked from the inside, the person peeped in through an open window, and found Malini lying lifeless in a pool of blood. Jagannath too was found dead, having hanged himself in the bedroom.
The utensils in the kitchen were strewn all over the place. As the couple were alone, the exact reason or motive behind the act is not yet known.
Background
Malini, daughter of the late Jagadish and Umavati from Yeyyadi, Mangalore, had married her first husband Kumar Gowda from Hassan 15 years ago. Due to marital discord, she divorced him and returned to her parental house.
She then worked in a beauty parlour in Kapikad, Mangalore. She developed friendship with Jagannath from Puttur, who was employed in a nearby laundry, and soon both fell in love. Three years ago, they got married in Dharmasthala. However, Neither Malini nor her family knew anything about Jagannath's background. For the past three months, the family had settled in a rented house in Karkala, where Jagannath was engaged in tile-fitting work.
Around 15 days ago, Malini and her family attended her late father's death anniversary, and were back on June 19. On June 18 night at Malini's parental house, Malini and Jagannath got into a fight, and Jagannath is said to have threatened to kill her with a broken beer bottle in hand. Others in the family intervened and broke up the fight, however, they could not fathom the reason for the quarrel.
On June 19, Jagannath returned to Karkala with the children in the morning, Malini returned in the afternoon. On the morning of the incident, though Malini had spoken to her younger sister and mother, she gave no indication of any threat to her life. Jagannath had gone out on the pretext of some work, but later returned and hacked Malini to death, before hanging himself, it is learnt.
Karkala rural police have registered a case. Karkala DySP Jayant Shetty, circle inspector Valentine D'Souza and police inspector Azmat Ali visited the spot and conducted preliminary investigation.