Woman accused of murdering fiance commits suicide

Bangalore, Mar 26: The 24-year-old woman who allegedly had her fiance murdered last October and was out on bail, committed suicide by hanging herself at her home in Peenya Dasarahalli, late on Sunday night.

Soumya S K had been arrested by Bangalore Rural police following the murder, and had been granted bail on March 13, as the trial was yet to begin.

Soumya met Nitish, 27, an Accenture staffer and a resident of Rajajinagar, on Facebook two years ago.

They became close friends and decided to marry. Both families approved the marriage and they got engaged a year ago.

However, the relationship began to flounder after Soumya noticed that Nitish was moving closely with some of his female colleagues. Soon, Soumya met Parshwanath Malagatti, an unemployed youth on Facebook and they became friends.

Soumya and Malagatti then hatched a conspiracy to murder Nitish. She browsed the net for ways to kill Nitish and hit upon the idea of poisoning him. Malagatti brought the lethal chemical Ammonium Sulphate from Belgaum.

On October 21, Soumya went with Nitish on his bike to a desolate spot at Shilindra Doddi near Bannerghatta.?She offered her fiance a soft drink laced with the chemical. Within minutes, Nitish went weak. Malagatti who had been waiting nearby, blindfolded Nitish and stabbed him repeatedly in the chest. As he collapsed in a pool of blood, the pair bludgeoned him to death with a large rock lying nearby.

Bannerghatta police recovered the body the next day and took up the investigation.

Soumya, who had constantly messaged Malagatti to co-ordinate the plot, had inadvertently left a trail for the police, and investigating officers obtained their first solid lead after analysing details of all mobile phone calls made in the area.

The duo were subsequently arrested in Belgaum on October 30.

Suicide

Police sources said Soumya's father Prakash, an industrialist, had reportedly reprimanded her for bringing disrepute to the family and taking the life of a man.

Suffering from depression and humiliated by her being in jail, sources in the family said that Soumya had not eaten properly for the last two days.

Family members told Deccan Herald that her parents (including her mother, Indira), anxious of the untoward step that she might take, had made her sleep with them in the same room from the day she had returned home.

On Sunday, the family had been watching television till midnight and then went to sleep.

While Soumya slept with her parents in the bedroom on the ground floor, her younger brother had slept in his room on the first floor.

Prakash, who woke up at 4.45 am on Monday to go the bathroom found his bedroom door locked from the outside.

He also found that his daughter was not in the room. He called out to his son, who soon discovered that the door to his room had also been bolted form outside.

Prakash called police who rushed to the spot and broke open the door, only to find Soumya hanging from the ceiling in the hall, using her mother's saree.

Peenya police have registered a case and are investigating.

An autopsy was conducted on the body at M S Ramaiah Hospital on Monday afternoon and later handed over to the family.