The police today arrested Manoj Kumar (29) for killing his wife Lakhsmi (24) last week at Vinayaka Layout near HAL Airport. The software engineer murdered her so that he could marry his girlfriend.
Lakshmi was a system analyst with IBM, and Manoj too worked in the same company. But both worked in different development centres of IBM, at the Embassay Golf Links Tech Park. The couple, hailing from Chennai, had an arranged married in August this year.
"Manoj was in love with another girl. But due to parental pressure he married Lakshmi. Even after the marriage Manoj continued his relationship with his girlfriend and wanted to get rid of his wife. Lakshmi on the other hand was dedicated to the relationship. Manoj thought that going through a divorce was difficult with many complications and thought of killing her. His girlfriend was not involved in the crime," said Soumendu Mukherjee, DCP (South East).
On November 7, Lakshmi had not gone to work as she was not feeling well. Manoj came home in between and smashed her head with an iron rod. He went back to work and returned in the evening at around 8 pm. He then raised an alarm that Lakshmi was in a pool of blood.
The police first suspected the construction workers in the apartment, and thought the murder was for gain since jewellery and Rs 30,000 cash was missing. Three other families lived in the apartment and some construction work was still on.
Sergeant's case
Last month, in a similar case, a retired Air Force sergeant murdered his wife and two children. D S Yadav had an extra marital affair and eliminated his family to marry his girlfriend.
On October 19, the bodies of 35-year-old Anu Yadav, her 15-year-old daughter Keerthi Yadav and 11-year-old son Adithya Shubham were found in their residence at Singapura Layout in Vidyaranyapura. Their throats had been slit with a sharp weapon.
Yadav's earlier version of the story was similar to that of Manoj. He said he had left home for the Yeshwantpur railway station at 6 am to reschedule his train tickets to Haryana. Yadav said it was only when he returned home at 10.30 am that he found the bodies of his wife and children lying in a pool of blood. Yadav had also said that Rs 50,000 in cash, a mobile phone and a gold chain had gone missing from his house.
