Skeleton in cupboard: It was murder over food feud, say B'luru cops
\"The accused had planned that once the body is completely decomposed and turns into the skeleton, they could easily dispose it off.
Bengaluru: Less than a week after a highly decomposed body of 69-year-old Shanthakumari was found stuffed inside a cupboard at a rented house in Gandhinagar in Kengeri Satellite Town, the police have named her daughter and grandson as the prime accused.
Based on the information provided by Nandeesh (21), one of the accused in the murder of Shanthakumari, who was earlier arrested, Kengeri police said that Shantakumari was killed by her daughter Shashikala (42) in the third week of August last year, when she refused to eat the food which Shashikala's son Sanjay (21) had brought from a hotel.
Police said on the day of the incident, when Shashikala gave the food to her mother, she refused and reportedly spilled it on the floor. An infuriated Shashikala hit her mother on the head multiple times with a rolling pin.
She collapsed due to head injuries and began bleeding profusely. Fearing police investigation, the duo did not treat her and kept her at house. She died the following day, the police said.
The mother-son then planned to dispose the body at the house itself and Sanjay took the help of his friend Nandeesh. The trio then stuffed the body inside a cupboard and plastered it with cement and painted the wall red. In order to help decompose the body at the earliest and to eliminate any foul smell, the trio had put charcoal and soil on the body and permanently shut the windows of the room.
"The accused had planned that once the body is completely decomposed and turns into the skeleton, they could easily dispose it off and thus stayed at the house for six months. In February 2017 when the foul smell from the cupboard became unbearable, they thought people will come to know about the crime and left the house," the police said.
On May 7 this year, the house owner Naveen who had rented the ground floor of the building to the accused, went to check the house as the rental agreement ended in April. Moreover the tenants were not to be seen since February and had not paid the rent. They had in fact taken Rs 50,000 loan from him.
Naveen found the plastered cupboard and felt something amiss as there was foul smell. He alerted the police who broke open the cupboard to find the body.
Shashikala and Sanjay, who hail from Shivamogga are yet to be arrested. Police have formed teams to nab them.