A 57-year-old woman was found murdered in her house while her son was sleeping in another room in Tilak Nagar on Wednesday.

The deceased, identified as Mani Venkatesh, was a homemaker. Her husband Venkatesh had passed away a few years ago. Her son Kishore (37), a software engineer, had not been going to work for the past one month, the police said. The two lived in rented house on the first floor of a building owned by Pradeep Kumar in Jayanagar 9th Block.

They were natives of Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh and had been living in Bengaluru for the past three years, the police added.

According to the police, the incident came to light around 10.30 am on Wednesday when Kishore realised that his room was locked from outside. He called out to his mother. As there was no response, he called on her phone. There was no response. Kishore then called the building manager Amarnath over phone and asked him to open the door, the police said.

When Amarnath opened the door, he found Mani lying on the floor in a room and Kishore locked up in another. Amarnath opened Kishore's room and then informed the police.

Tilak Nagar police rushed to the spot and secured the crime scene. "We found a pillow that was possibly used to smother the victim. There was a small blunt injury mark on the woman's head. However, the exact cause of death can be ascertained only after postmortem,” said a senior police officer.

Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) experts along with finger-print experts and a dog squad were summoned. "It is too premature to comment on the motive of the crime as it does not look like murder for gain. There are no signs of ransacking. As there was no forced entry, somebody known could have been involved in the crime. We are probing the incident from multiple angles," said Boralingiah, deputy commissioner of police South East Division.

The body was shifted to Victoria Hospital for postmortem. A case of murder was registered at Tilak Nagar police station and investigations are on.