Man kills wife, keeps her body for 4 days, then jumps to death

Manish Kumar

A garment company manager jumped to death from his third-floor house on Saturday, four days after having killed his wife and wrapping her body in a blanket.

Manish Kumar, 42, gave a relative and neighbours some really frightening moments before committing suicide at AECS Layout, Kudlu Gate, Southeast Bengaluru. The relative had come over after Kumar's brother called him from Delhi, saying he had stopped responding to phone calls.

The relative, who lives in Hongasandra, arrived at Kumar's house around noon. He knocked on the door which was bolted from the inside but didn't get a response. When he asked the neighbours, they said they didn't have a clue. The relative and the neighbours decided to break the door open.

But as they entered the house, they got the shock of their lives. Seeing them, Kumar started slitting his wrist with a blade, then ran into the bathroom and locked himself in. They followed him and asked him to open the door. But he ignored them. They had to break open the bathroom door, too. By this time, Kumar had slashed his hands, chest and other parts of the body. Waving the blade at them, he asked them to stay away.

Even the relative and the neighbours pleaded with him to drop the blade, he ran out and jumped off the building. He was taken to a hospital but doctors declared him brought dead.

A bigger shock awaited them later. They felt a foul smell emanating from the house. When they went in, they found the highly decomposed body of Kumar's wife, Sandhya, 35, wrapped in a blanket. They called the police.

Police found a death note purportedly written by Kumar on May 12. "We suspect he killed her on that day," said a police officer investigating the case.

According to the police, the death note specifies what made Kumar kill his wife and commit suicide. Sandhya suspected him of having an affair since he regularly called up some bar dancers he had met in Gurgaon and Delhi. She accessed his phone and saw the phone calls and the WhatsApp messages that he had sent them. The issue rocked their marital life and they often fought over it. He then decided to kill his wife and commit suicide, Kumar is said to have written in the death note.

Police said Kumar appeared to have spent the last four days at home, with his wife's body wrapped in the blanket. "We don't know whether he tried to dispose of the body or didn't want to see it," the officer said. Since the body was decomposed, police couldn't determine how he killed her and are waiting for the post-mortem report.

Joshi Srinath Mahadev, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast), said the couple hailed from Bihar. "We are waiting for Sandhya's relatives to come down to Bengaluru. A case of murder and suicide has been registered at the Parappana Agrahara police station."

Another officer who's part of the investigation said the couple had a love marriage. Kumar's phone does have private chats with some women. "We'll get a clear picture after questioning both the families," he added.