City school teacher found dead with throat slit

The Hulimavu police identified the woman as Priyanka Gupta, 29, who was married to Satish Gupta, an employee in the HR department of Infosys. The police suspect that the murder took place on Tuesday morning.

Priyanka’s body was found in a sitting posture on the sofa, her hands tied and throat slit with a kitchen knife. The police discovered knife wounds on Priyanka’s belly, but the gruesomeness of the murder could be gauged by the violence committed on the body. After slitting Priyanka’s throat, the killer or killers twisted the blade indiscriminately in the flesh.

A police source said the first attack might have been in the form of an attempted strangulation. “When she resisted, the killer gagged her with a piece of cloth and held the neck still by tightening a nylon rope noose around it before using the knife to make the deep cut which killed her,” the police said.

Among some interesting clues the police found at the spot are a pair of gloves, shoes and a red jerkin, with a pack of cigarettes in one of the pockets. According to Satish’s statement to the police, Rs 2 lakh in cash and jewellery worth Rs 1.6 lakh are missing from the almirah. But the ornaments on Priyanka’s person besides Rs 30,000 in cash kept elsewhere in the house were untouched. The house did not appear to have been ransacked. The police are not ruling out the murder as one for gain, but are pursuing other angles like a contract killing, rivalry and enmity with a person or persons known to her.

Satish and Priyanka married two-and-a-half years ago and had been living with Satish’s parents, but eight months ago they moved out to live in a rented two-bedroom room apartment. The couple were childless but apparently led a happy life. According to Satish’s cousin Manoj, for the past few months, Priyanka was undergoing treatment for arthritis and her mother came over to stay with her.

On Tuesday, Satish left for a walk around 5:45 am and Priyanka was getting ready for routine exercise. When Satish had walked some distance and had begun playing a game of badminton, he received a call from Priyanka alerting him that two persons were at the door enquiring about some newspaper. She asked Satish if he had made any orders.

Before he could respond, the line went dead. Satish tried calling her back but the call went unanswered. He immediately turned homeward but found the door locked from inside. He is believed to have told the police that he then went to his father’s house in Jambu Savari Dinne, collected the car and drove to his office from where he picked up the duplicate key. When he entered the house, Satish found his wife on the sofa, her body lying in a pool of blood.

The couple lived on the second floor, but none of the neighbours, either on the ground or first floors, sensed what might have happened so early in the morning in Satish’s house.
The police, who will of course question Satish thoroughly, are wondering why despite suffering an ankle sprain, he set out for a walk wearing leather shoes.

The police have reasons to believe that the murder was committed by one, or at best, two persons.

Priyanka’s parents reached Bangalore on Tuesday night. The post mortem is scheduled to take place on Wednesday after the inquest.