Bengaluru, Sep 27: A woman and her mother-in-law were found brutally murdered with their throats in the main hall of a duplex house on 11th main, Vasanthnagar in central Bengaluru on Monday.
The victims were identified as Latha Dinesh (38) and her mother-in-law Santoshi Bai (58). “The two were murdered when they were having breakfast, probably between 10.30 and 11 am,” DCP?(Central)?Sandeep Patil said.
The incident came to light at around 11:30 a.m. when the two daughters of Latha returned home after appearing for an internal exam in their school.
According to the police, Latha's two daughters Meenal, 15, and Prachi, 8, went to school at around 9 am. Santoshi's husband, Sampath Raj, and her son Dinesh left for their shop, Mandal Chemicals at Balepet, around 10 am. Latha's youngest son Kush was sleeping on the first floor of the duplex house at the time of incident.
Meenal returned home first from school around 11.30 am and found the front door open.?She entered the house and saw the bodies of her mother and grandmother on the floor. She screamed and ran out of the house. A police constable on patrol duty, who was sipping tea in front of her house, asked her what was wrong. But Meenal was too shocked to speak, the police said.
“The constable rushed into the house and later informed the police about the twin murders,” Raghavan, a tea vendor opposite the victims' house, said. The family members usually allowed visitors in only after knowing their identity through a window next to the door.
The neighbours rushed upstairs to find the girls' toddler brother asleep. The panicky girls soon called their father using a passerby's phone. In no time, the place was swarming with police.
Investigations indicated that people known to the victims' family were involved in the double murder, reportedly over a financial matter.
The police said there was no forced entry into the house, which is less than 500 metres from the jurisdictional High Grounds police station.
“The assailants seem to have had an easy entry. They did not even close the door when they left after committing the murder. Circumstantial evidence gives rise to the suspicion that people known to the family are involved in the murder. The victims' throats were slit four times,” the DCP?said.
Sampath, a native of Rajasthan, had settled in Bengaluru about 40 years ago. A moneylender, he is constructing a five-storey building in the lane next to his house in Vasanthanagar. He had a running dispute with some people who had borrowed money from him. Those who owed him money might have killed his wife and daughter-in-law, the police said.
Sources said Latha had called Sampath after two men arrived at their house for some work. She had also informed her husband Dinesh and even named the two men. Dinesh reportedly told Latha he would speak to them later, the sources added.
A file photo of Latha with her husband.
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