Daughter, grandson held after six years for killing mother

BENGALURU: A mother and son, who were wanted for the murder of a 69-year-old woman, were arrested almost five years later in Kolhapur, Maharashtra. The pair was traced after the son opened a bank account using his Aadhaar card.

The accused were identified as Shashikala, alias Radha, 50, and her son Sanjay, 27. The victim, Shantha Kumari, was Shashikala’s mother. Kumari was murdered in her house in Kengeri Satellite Town for refusing to eat gobi manchurian on August 17, 2016. Sanjay, who was an aeronautical student, had killed his grandmother, and his mother decided to cover it up and save her son. The accused had buried the body inside the cupboard, using charcoal and salt. They had even plastered it with cement. They then fled the city. The incident came to light nine months later in May 2017, after the house owner came to check on the tenants and saw the missing cupboard.

After nearly five years, police managed to arrest the mother and son. After the aged woman’s death, there were rumours that she was killed for refusing to register her property in the names of her daughter and grandson. Sanjay’s friend Nandish had been arrested in 2017, based on the mobile call details of the former. The accused, before fleeing, had left the mobile in the rented house. Nandish had helped the accused by providing logistics.

“The mother and son were working in a hotel in Kolhapur. Sanjay was working as a supplier while his mother was working as the cleaner in the hotel,” said an officer who is part of the team which arrested the duo in Maharashtra.

After the murder, the team of policemen had gone to Sagara in Shivamogga, the hometown of the victim, to get details of the accused. The police had no clues of the accused. The Kengeri police who registered the murder case while recently reviewing unsolved cases, started checking on the mother and son. They found out that Sanjay had opened a bank account using his Aadhaar card. A team of policemen collected Sanjay’s address from the bank’s Kolhapur branch and arrested them on last Saturday.