The woman, identified as Vinutha (43), was into tailoring business while her husband is a writer in the rice market at the RMC Yard. According to the police, the alleged rape-and-murder might have taken place moments before the woman’s son Sharath returned from school. In fact, the police, said Sharath conversed with the accused and saw him walking out of the house, face covered with a towel.
The police have ordered an autopsy on the body to establish if the woman was raped before she was stabbed to death. The body was discovered with its throat slit and multiple injuries on the thighs, abdomen and chest. The body was found lying in a pool of blood in a room without any clothes, leading the police to suspect that Vinutha was sexually assaulted by the assailant. The police are also looking into the possibility that the crime might have been commited for gain. The incident would have taken place between 3.10 pm and 3:45 pm.
When Sharath returned from school he was surprised to see the main door locked from inside. When he knocked on the door and his mother failed to respond, he heard a male voice asking him to “just wait and I will open the door.”
After a few minutes the assailant, believed to be in his early thirties, opened the door before leaving with a towel wrapped around his face.
Shocked to see his mother’s body in a pool of blood, Sharath immediately called his father, informing of the crime. Vinutha’s husband alerted the police. Interestingly, the police did not find any evidence of forcible entry into the apartment, though there were signs that the rooms had been ransacked. According to police sources, the woman struggled for no less than 20 minutes to escape from the clutches of her assailant. The police are baffled why the neighbours failed to hear the woman’s cries for help.
Neighbours, who preferred anonymity, told the Deccan Herald that Vinutha was in the habit of keeping the door open and many women used to visit her as she ran a tailoring business. The sniffer dogs traced the footprints of the culprit to Mahalaxmi Layout bus stop but police are unsure whether he used public transport or used a personal vehicle to make his getaway.