Bangalore: Three Women of a Family Found Murdered
The Hindu
Bangalore, Jan 21: Coming close on the heels of the gruesome and as yet unsolved murder of an elderly couple in Jayanagar, three women of a family were found murdered in nearby Tilaknagar on Tuesday afternoon.
Sathyabhama (84), a former school teacher, her daughter Vijayalakshmi (55) and daughter-in-law Jayashree (45) were found beaten to death using what is presumed to be iron rods before being smothered. Vijayalakshmi was a teacher at the Nehru Smarak Vidya Kendra in Tilaknagar.
Jayashree
The Tilaknagar police suspect the crime may have taken place between 11.45 a.m. and 2.45 p.m. It came to light when Jayashree’s son Shreyas (13) returned from school.
The bodies of Sathyabhama and Vijayalakshmi were found in the bedroom and Jayashree’s in the living room. Police said that the jewellery worn by the women were intact, but the assailants had searched the house. Shreyas told the police he found the main door open and the bodies lying in a pool of blood.
A mother of six, Sathyabhama has been residing in the house since 1962. Her husband, C.N. Ramakrishna, an HAL employee, died 30 years ago. Relatives said Jayashree had been living with her octogenarian mother-in-law since her husband Manjunath’s death six years ago.
Neighbours said Sathyabhama’s oldest son Nataraj is the Chandapur branch manager of Canara Bank, the second son Venugopal is an employee of Steel Authority of India and the third, Radhakrishna, is a the manager of Dena Bank’s New Delhi branch, while her younger daughter Lakshmi is a homemaker.
The murders have traumatised the family that was preparing to perform Shreyas’s sacred thread ceremony (“upanayana”) on January 27. In fact, many relatives had visited the house in the morning to discuss the arrangements. “The relatives left around 11.45 a.m. and around 2.45 p.m., we received the shocking news,” said Shashikala, Jayashree’s sister.
Though the police are looking for the motive, they suspect the involvement of at least two persons known to the women.