JOIN USTwo women were reportedly murdered under mysterious circumstances in separate incidents in Koramangala and Madiwala here on Wednesday morning. They are also suspected to have been sexually assaulted.
In Koramangala, an unidentified woman, aged around 40 years, was found strangulated with a cable wire on a plot behind the BDA Complex.
Her killers reportedly had stuffed her mouth with mud before gagging her with a piece of dirty cloth.
Local residents alerted the police about the body.
A senior police officer who visited the spot told Deccan Herald the woman’s appearance suggested she came from a poor background.
There was a tattoo ‘Shanthamma’ on her left arm. Police, however, are not sure if it was the victim’s name or that of someone dear to her.
The officer said the woman appeared to have been murdered rather brutally.
The cable wire allegedly used to her was from the sceme of crime.
Police said it was not clear whether the woman had died of suffocation after mud was stuffed into her mouth or after being strangulated.
Investigators are also probing whether there was any sexual assault on the victim. There were, however, no external injuries on the body and her saree was intact.
T D Pawar, DCP (South-East), said rape could not be ruled out and the medical report would throw light on the matter.
Besides, the samples of mud found in her mouth and in the vacant plot from where the body was recovered would be sent for forensic examination to determine the place of murder. It was to be ascertained whether she was murdered on the said plot of land or elsewhere and her body dumped there, the officer said.
A special team has been formed to investigate the case. An officer who is part of the team said efforts were on to establish the victim’s identity. Her photographs had been circulated to police stations and among the media.
In Madiwala, a middle-aged woman from Kerala was found mysteriously dead in front of her house in Brindavana Nagar, Chikkadugodi.
Maniyamma, 47, had sustained a minor head injury and there were some bruises on her body. There was, however, nothing on the spot to suggest someone had barged into her house and murdered her, police said, adding that she died of injuries after falling on the road.
The victim’s daughter, Priya, however, claimed in her statement to the media that her mother might have been raped before being murdered for gain.
Maniyamma had received the salary on Tuesday and a known person might have murdered her and even raped her, Priya alleged.
The victim had settled in the City several years ago. A widow, she worked at a sweetmeat shop in Koramangala and lived with her son and daughter-in-law at her house.
Her son and his wife left for Kerala on Tuesday and Maniyamma was alone at home. A neighbour who found her body alerted Priya who lives a stone’s throw away.
Madiwala police have not registered a murder case. Only a case of unnatural death under Section 174 of the Indian Penal Code has been booked.