• Victim had warned accused to stay away from her husband
• Accused wanted to kill paramour’s wife to continue affair

Mandya: Close on the heels of the Police making an arrest in the gruesome murder of five members of a family including four children on Bazaar Lane in Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS) village on Saturday night, more details are coming out as a result of intense interrogation of the accused woman.

The motive of the murder is illicit relationship where the accused Lakshmi of Belavatha had an affair with the victim Lakshmi’s husband Gangaram. The accused Lakshmi had known the family well and before she committed the crime she had come to their house on Bazaar Lane and had stayed with the family. Late in the night she killed Lakshmi whom she considered as a rival but four innocent children fell prey to her intentions.

It now transpires that the victim Lakshmi knew about her husband’s illicit relationship and had warned the accused Lakshmi to stay away from her husband. In her confession statement given to the Police, the accused narrated the sequence of incidents that led to the murder and these details were revealed to the media by Mandya Superintendent of Police N. Yathish at a press conference held at his office yesterday.

The victim Lakshmi had warned the accused Lakshmi a couple of times to end her affair with her husband Gangaram. Not willing to do so, the accused went on to pester Gangaram to continue the relationship. Even Gangaram was avoiding the accused and had told her to stay away from him.

Machete from butcher’s shop

An enraged Lakshmi thought that Gangaram’s wife Lakshmi was the main stumbling block to her relationship and decided to eliminate the family. “Lakshmi’s efforts to convince Gangaram to live with her did not materialise following which she decided on the murder. Lakshmi procured a machete from a butcher’s shop in Mysuru and left for KRS village when Gangaram had gone out on a business trip,” the Police said.

On the night of the murder, the accused Lakshmi has a fight with Gangaram’s wife till late in the night and then assaulted her with the machete that the accused had hid in the bathroom of the house, the Police said.

Children caught in crossfire

After killing the victim Lakshmi, the accused turned her ire on the children who woke up following the commotion and fearing that they could turn out to be witnesses, Lakshmi assaulted them on the heads with the machete, killing them. The SP said that the accused had told the investigators that she did not have the intention of killing the children but wanted to eliminate only Gangaram’s wife.

The accused Lakshmi returned the machete to the butcher’s shop the next morning after thoroughly washing it. The SP had constituted a special squad to crack the mystery surrounding the case and following early detection, commendation certificates were given to the Police team.

The accused Lakshmi has been sent to judicial custody and the Police are still investigating the case to find out if any other persons are involved in the crime. Even the role of Gangaram is being probed though he has come clean so far, the SP added.

Additional SP Venugopal, Srirangapatna Dy.SP Sandesh Kumar were present along with the investigating team comprising Circle Inspectors Yogesh, Vivekananda, Puneeth Sumarani and Sub-Inspectors Manjunath, Girish, Lingaraju, Rekha and Ramesh.

Accused was inspired by ‘Drishyam’ film

In 2013, Jeethu Joseph’s ‘Drishyam’ set the box-office in Kerala on fire and led to remakes in several languages including Kannada and Hindi. This particular family murder executed by the accused Lakshmi was inspired by the film’s plot.

According to Srirangapatna Dy.SP Sandesh Kumar, the accused had confessed to the Police that the movie inspired her to commit the crime. “Lakshmi was a close relative of Gangaram and when he cut off communication with the accused, she bought a new SIM card in the name of her neighbour’s wife. Using this SIM card, the accused called Gangaram and his wife and changed her voice while speaking. This was to drive a wedge between the couple who lived cordially,” the Dy.SP told Star of Mysore.

He added that like in the movie, the accused tried her best to destroy evidence but was caught by meticulous investigation.