Gold, lies and a grisly murder: Inspired by 'Drishya', Karnataka man kills woman, dumps body in garbage to evade arrest

BENGALURU: Cracking the case of a 50-year-old woman, who had gone missing in Nov last year, police have arrested an electrician for killing her and robbing her gold ornaments worth nearly Rs 4 lakh.

The accused, Lakshman, 30, is a resident of KHB Colony Quarters slum near Nagenahalli in Yelahanka. The deceased is D Mary of the same area.

Lakshman told police he had watched the Kannada movie, Drishya, and learnt from it how to destroy evidence. After killing Mary, he threw her mobile sim card in a garbage dumpyard while disposing of her body and later threw her phone into a truck and managed to keep police off his trail for four months.

According to the complaint filed by Mary's niece, Jennifer from Hennur with Kothanur police on Nov 27 last year, her aunt went missing from the previous day. Police registered a missing-person case. Initially, police suspected the role of a few persons, but nothing concrete emerged.

The examination of Mary's call details record (CDR) and mobile tower location in Jan led police to a mobile number. Police traced Lakshman, who stayed in the same area as Mary and had, however, vanished around the time the latter disappeared.

Police collected Lakshman's CDR and found he had an extramarital affair with two women. He had sent his pregnant wife to her parental house. Plainclothesmen befriended Lakshman's two girlfriends and got to know that Lakshman was coming to meet one of them residing in the same area on March 9. When Lakshman came to meet his girlfriend, police detained him, and he confessed to killing Mary. He further confessed to disposing of Mary's body in a garbage dumpyard in Hosur Bande near Kannur. The skeletal remains of the decomposed body were recovered on Monday. Lakshman is in police custody.

Killed for gold, carried body in auto

Lakshman, who worked as an electrician and part-time autorickshaw driver, had opened a chicken shop investing Rs 12 lakh and sustained losses. His lenders were after him for money.

Since he was taking care of electrical and water issues in the area, he knew Mary and also knew she had gold ornaments. He decided to kill Mary, who was a political party functionary and member of Mahila Sangha.

He disconnected the electricity connection to Mary's house. Summoned to fix it, Lakshman went to her home and strangled her to death with her dupatta. He contacted a relative, an autorickshaw driver, on the pretext of disposing of some waste in the dumpyard. He packed Mary's body in a gunny bag and took it to the auto. He stopped the auto a few metres away from the dumpyard and threw the body. The driver didn't know there was a body in it.

Police are yet to recover the gold ornaments he robbed from her. One of his girlfriends was under a watch as she had got her pledged scooter released by paying around Rs 60,000. Lakshman gave her the money after pledging the ornaments of Mary.


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