Prime suspect in Bengaluru woman’s murder identified, says Police Commissioner

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], September 23 (ANI): Bengaluru Police Commissioner B Dayananda on Monday said that the police have identified the prime suspect in the case in which the body of a 29-year-old woman living in the city was found chopped up and stuffed into a refrigerator.

“It is being investigated from all angles. The prime suspect has been identified and efforts are underway to arrest him,” Commissioner Dayananda said while addressing a press conference here.

“He’s an outsider. We can’t give more information as of now as it may help the accused,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara said that the police have collected a lot of information regarding the woman’s death.

The Minister said that the police suspect a man reportedly from West Bengal to be behind the murder but added that more evidence is needed to confirm his role.

“The police have collected a lot of information, a lot of clues. One individual is also been…kind of they say he is the one. Unless we collect more information we can’t really say. He is from West Bengal they say,” Parameshwara told reporters here.

Reacting to the question regarding the government’s measures to enhance the safety of women, the minister said, “We have already taken a lot of precautions for women’s safety in Bengaluru. We are very careful about it. We have installed CCTV where lot of women go. These kinds of steps we have taken.”

In a shocking incident, dismembered body of a 29-year-old woman was found stuffed in the fridge of the house she was living in at Vinayaka Nagar in Vyalikaval in Bengaluru on September 21.

The woman identified as Mahalakshmi was living alone in the rented house for the last five months, Shekar H Tekkannavar, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Central Bengaluru.

The body parts were found highly decomposed with worms were found in them raising suspicion that the murder could have taken place a fortnight ago.

On Sunday, the state unit of the BJP launched a scathing attack on the Congress-led Karnataka government over the incident stating that the Kannadigas are no longer safe in this ‘Hitler-led Siddaramaiah’.

“Under @INCKarnataka rule, appeasement policies have led to a complete collapse of law and order. The brutal murder of Mahalakshmi by Ashraf is a clear reminder that Kannadigas are no longer safe in this Hitler-led @siddaramaiah government,” the official handle of BJP Karnataka posted on X.

The BJP further alleged that the Congress opposed the anti-love Jihad laws to please their vote bank.