• Suffocates wife to death using pillow
• Claims she died of low blood pressure
• Was torturing his wife to register properties in his name

Mandya: A lecturer of a private college in the town, who had allegedly murdered his wife, has been arrested by the Police. He had murdered his wife on Nov. 11 and was arrested by the Police on Nov. 15.

While the deceased has been identified as S. Shruthi (32), the accused husband is T.N. Somashekar, a lecturer at a private college in the town and a resident of V.V. Nagar here.

Shruthi, daughter of P. Shanmukhaswamy and Rajeshwari couple of Hebbal in Mysuru, was given in marriage to Somashekar, son of Nagarajappa of Mandya, a few years ago and the couple have two daughters.

Shruthi’s parents, who were well off, had given a three storey house at Vijayanagar in Mysuru to her and since then, Somashekar began to pester Shruthi to register the house in his name. As the torture from Somashekar increased, elders had intervened a few times.

Meanwhile, Shruthi’s parents Shanmukhaswamy and Rajeshwari passed away in two years difference between their deaths and another daughter Sushmitha too died after six months following which properties worth crores of rupees was inherited by Shruthi.

Again, Somashekar began to torture his wife to register the properties in his name. But Shruthi, who did not want to give the properties to her husband, wanted to register the properties in her children’s names. But Somashekar, who wanted the properties to be in his name, thought that he would not get the properties till Shruthi was alive and on Nov. 11 night, when Shruthi was sleeping, he reportedly suffocated her to death using a pillow.

In a bid to conceal his crime, he later called Shruthi’s uncle P. Kumaraswamy over the phone and told him that Shruthi suffered from low blood pressure and her condition was critical besides telling Kumaraswamy that he was taking Shruthi to a hospital. Kumaraswamy, who lives far from Mandya, told Somashekar to take Shruthi to a good hospital and he would come to Mandya early next morning.

But when Kumaraswamy and his family members reached the house in Mandya in the early hours on Nov. 12, they saw the body of Shruthi kept in front of the house with garlands on her. Somashekar told them that Shruthi died two hours back after failing to respond to the treatment. But a doctor who was present there, examined Shruthi’s body and suspected that she had died 5 to 6 hours ago which gave rise to doubts over Shruthi’s death.

Kumaraswamy, suspecting that Somashekar, his mother Neelambike and sister-in-law Hemalatha had murdered Shruthi for properties lodged a complaint against them at Mandya West Police Station.

When the post-mortem report suspected that Shruthi was suffocated to death, the Police took Somashekar into custody and during interrogation, Somashekar is said to have confessed of murdering Shruthi for properties following which the Police formally arrested him and produced before a Court which remanded him to judicial custody.