S Prasad Srishail Makai (L) and Sakshi Hanamantha Hodhlura.
Credit: Special arrangement
Bengaluru: In a swift operation, Subramanyapura police have arrested a couple for killing a 65-year-old home alone woman in what looks like a murder for gain. The accused were nabbed 12 hours after the incident came to light.
The arrested have been identified as S Prasad Srishail Makai, (26), and his wife Sakshi Hanamantha Hodhlura, (23). They are native of Solapur in Maharashtra. Prasad was a centering worker in Uttarahalli and Sakshi is working as a receptionist at a jewelry shop in Padmanabhanagar.
The accused on Tuesday smothered Shrilakshmi inside her house. They used a pillow to do so and also attacked to rob her mangalsutra. The accused had taken away a small pillow to destroy the evidence from FSL, the police said.
The victim Shrilakshmi, a resident of Uttarahalli was living with her husband G Ashwatha Narayan. He had gone to his agarbatti factory in Cottonpet while his wife was alone at home. Around 2.15 pm, Narayan called his wife and did not answer calls.
He then assumed that she must be sleeping. Around 5.30 pm, Narayan called one of his tenants Phaniraj, requesting him to check his wife. Phaniraj, who told that he was outside, informed Narayan that he had asked his wife to check. Around 6 pm, Phaniraj called back to Narayan and told him that his wife had fallen unconscious on the floor.
Narayan rushed home and found Shrilakshmi dead. He then called his sister-in-law Sampathi Lakshmi to inform about her sister's murder. Sampathi Lakshmi told Narayan that she had called Shrilakshmi around 1.30 pm when she told that a couple had come to her house and were checking the television and she came out of the house to attend the phone call.
The aged couple have been married for 40 years and have no children. There were scratch marks on her right side of the neck, lips, and face. Her nose ring, finger ring, and earrings were intact," said an officer.
Deep in debt
A senior police officer said that during the interrogation the accused couple confessed that Makai had a debt of Rs 20 lakh in his native and he took it from his relatives. He was under pressure to repay it and thus the couple hatched the murder plot well in advance.
They were also tenants of Narayan and had shifted five months ago. Sakshi had observed the movements of Shrilakshmi for a week.