Bengaluru Cab Driver Indushekhar Accused of Killing Wife and Six of Her Relatives; Child's Body Recovered
In Bengaluru in India's Karnataka state, a cab driver has been accused of killing his wife and six members of her family over alleged interference in family matters. The accused is named Indushekhar.
The dead include his wife Sunita, two brothers-in-law, their two wives, his mother-in-law and a seven-year-old child.
According to the police's preliminary investigation, Indushekhar had long had a marital dispute with his wife. He married Sunita about 20 years ago, and they lived in Bengaluru's Rajajinagar area.
Relatives tried several times to settle the marital dispute, but it continued. During this time, his wife's mother and brothers supported Sunita, which angered Indushekhar, the investigation found.
Police suspect he planned to kill his wife's family members because he considered them interferers in his life.
Sources linked to the investigation said Indushekhar first killed his wife Sunita. According to the allegation, he struck her on the head with a grinding stone and she died on the spot. He later took the body and dumped it at Nandi Hills. To avoid neighbours' suspicion, he said his wife had gone travelling with friends and had kept her mobile phone switched off.
The next day, Indushekhar invited his two brothers-in-law, Shivkumar and Shankar, to his home on the pretext of a drinking session, where they were killed, according to the allegation. He later also killed their wives Nalini and Divya, his mother-in-law Rupabati and Shankar's seven-year-old son Punit.
Police suspect the family members were called to the house one by one and killed, and the bodies were then dumped at various places to conceal the killings.
After the killings, the accused cleaned blood stains in the house and washed the suspected grinding stone with a chemical substance. Investigators have seized the stone and a car suspected of being used to transport the bodies.
Police began investigating after Nalini's mother filed a missing complaint about the family members. At one stage, inconsistencies in Indushekhar's statements and various evidence found at his house raised suspicion against him. After long interrogation, he confessed to the killings, police claimed.
As part of the investigation, police took the accused to Nandi Hills for a search. After several hours, the body of seven-year-old Punit was recovered from there. The search for the remaining bodies is continuing.
Police said the accused claimed he was mentally distressed because of the long-running family dispute. However, whether anyone else helped in the killings is being examined, and in particular the possible involvement of the accused's daughter is also being investigated.
On Friday, Karnataka minister Priyank Kharge called the incident 'extremely unfortunate'. He told reporters it appeared the killings had been planned within the family. The accused claimed he felt insulted by his wife's family members, and he had also given information about where in the state the bodies were kept, the minister said.
