Woman's murder: 3 family members held

Bengaluru: The Bidadi police have cracked the murder case of a woman, who had gone missing for the last two months, and have arrested her husband, daughter and son-in-law.

Though all the three accused had differences with one another, they all joined hands as they had their own reasons to eliminate Manjula, 55, a resident of Heggadegere in Ramanagar. The accused are her husband, Thimmaiah, 60, daughter Rani, 19, and her husband Anand, 30.

Manjula and Thimmaiah have five daughters. Two months ago, all the five – Manjula, Thimmaiah, Rani, Anand and their two children went missing.

The other family members neglected it and filed a missing compliant a month later.

As the police started the investigation, they got information on the whereabouts of Thimmaiah. They traced him and when questioned, he did not give any proper answer on where he had gone all these days.

“When interrogated, he confessed that he along with Rani and Anand murdered Manjula. Based on his information, the other two were also arrested. Thimmaiah was upset with his wife as she did not give him money for alcohol,” said police.

Meanwhile, Rani, the fifth and youngest daughter, was nursing a grudge against her mother for marrying her off to Anand, whom she did not like.

Anand, on the other hand, was angry that Manjula had stopped letting him see his two children, who were staying at her house. The trio hatched a plot and hacked Manjula to death with a sickle. Later, they buried her body in the backyard of their house and escaped the police said.

Based on the complaint filed by one of Manjula’s daughters, the police exhumed the body of Manjula.  Further investigations are on.