Son of late husband's colleague killed elderly woman: Police

Last week’s shocking murder of an elderly home-alone woman in Rajarajeshwari Nagar, west Bengaluru, was committed by the son of her deceased husband’s ex-colleague, police said.

The prime suspect ganged up with three of his friends to murder her for gain. Krishna Kishore, 30, lives in 5th Stage, BEML Layout, not far away from the home of Lakshmi Rajam, 67. His father and Lakshmi’s husband, Satyamurthy, had worked at a BEML factory. Satyamurthy died about four years ago. The couple have a son and daughter.

The daughter was married off and lives in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. The son is a software engineer and lives with his family in Koramangala. He would occasionally visit his mother.

Kishore, who does odd jobs like computer repair and service, knew Lakshmi’s family well and often visited her. He somehow learnt that she had kept a large sum of cash and gold jewellery at home. He roped in his friends and plotted the murder.

On May 31, around 5.30 pm, Kishore went to Lakshmi’s home and enquired about her well-being. He spent some time talking to her. Meanwhile, he called his accomplices and asked them to wait outside the house. At one point of time, Lakshmi went into the kitchen to make fruit juice for Kishore. Just then, Kishore signalled to his waiting friends.

They sneaked into the house and went straight into the kitchen. They hit Lakshmi on the head, gagged her with a piece of cloth and pasted Cellophane tape across her mouth, so that she doesn’t raise an alarm. They then took a mobile phone charger wire and strangled her with it. Thereafter, they removed two gold chains and a pair of bangles she was wearing, and sneaked out, said a police officer who is part of the investigation team.
The murder came to light the next morning when neighbours found Lakshmi’s house door ajar. They went in and found her lying motionless in a pool of blood. When the jurisdictional Rajarajeshwari Nagar police arrived at the crime spot, it was clear to them that the murder was committed by someone known to the victim as there was no forced entry into the house.

They checked the CCTV cameras installed nearby but found no clue. The breakthrough came when some neighbours testified seeing Kishore visit Lakshmi on the evening of May 31. They picked him up and before long he spilled the beans.

Police have identified the other suspects as Gopi M, 21, a resident of Kathriguppe, Ragha- vendra alias Raghu, 33, from Guttahalli, and Guru alias Gururaj, 31, from near Kanteerava Studio. All of them are jobless and were picked up from their homes. Police said the suspects had pawned the stolen jewellery which would be recovered shortly.