Woman arrested for killing paramour’s family of five

Srirangapatna: Hearing a case last year, the Delhi High Court observed, “illicit relationship is a perfect mix for disaster. Most times, it turns the family system into hell.” A perfect example to illustrate this observation is the case where five members of a family were murdered at a village near Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS) on the night of last Saturday.

A woman and her three children along with one more child of a relative were hacked to death inside their house at Bazaar Lane and the crime had come to light on Sunday. Cracking the case within two days, the Police have arrested a woman who allegedly committed the crime over an illicit relationship. She was upset that the relationship had come to an end.

Lakshmi (32), her children Raj (12), Komal (7), Kunal (4) and a relative’s son Govinda (8) were the victims. Lakshmi’s husband Gangaram is a garment businessman. Govinda is the son of Ganesh, who is Gangaram’s brother and had come to his uncle’s house. The arrested woman is also Lakshmi, the victim Lakshmi’s uncle’s daughter. She is a resident of Belavatta and is married and has two children.

Rejection led to anger

According to the Police, the Belavatta woman had an affair with Gangaram for many years and of late, Gangaram resisted her advances and had sternly told her that he could not continue the relationship as he was happy with his family, Police said. Gangaram and this woman used to fight frequently over the issue and he had asked her to stop pestering him.

Police said that enraged over Gangaram’s attitude, a spurned Lakshmi planned to avenge her rejection and meticulously planned the murder. She had maintained a cordial relationship with Gangaram’s family and had visited their house a couple of times. She became friends with the unsuspecting victim Lakshmi and the latter too encouraged her.

During one of her visits to the house on Bazaar Lane, Lakshmi (Belavatta woman) had brought a sharp machete and had hid the same in the bathroom. As she was close to the victim Lakshmi, she came to know that Gangaram is scheduled to be out of his house on business for many days, the Police said.

Night of horror

As per her plan, she came to Gangaram’s house on Saturday evening and spent time with the family, playing with the children. She had dinner and chatted with the victim Lakshmi for a long time even as the children fell asleep. Later she went to the bathroom and as the victim Lakshmi was readying to sleep, Lakshmi (Gangaram’s paramour) came out with the machete and attacked the lady of the house.

According to the Police, the victim Lakshmi did not resist much as the machete hit her throat. However, she resisted further attacks but was overpowered. Her husband’s paramour then took a pillow and smothered her to death. Hearing the struggle sounds, Govinda woke up and he screamed for help but the woman attacked him too with the machete and he collapsed on his bed. Meanwhile, hearing the scream and sounds, the three children woke up and began crying. In a fit of rage, Lakshmi attacked them. Unable to bear the assault, the young lives gave up. Police said that Lakshmi wiped out the family between 9 pm and 11 pm. She stayed in the house along with the blood-ridden bodies till 4 am.

Cleaning up after crime

After washing herself, she came to the Aralimara Bus Stand at KRS with a bag that contained blood-soaked clothes. She travelled to Metagalli from KRS and later came to her house at Belavatta and took a shower before throwing the clothes and the murder weapon into Varuna Canal. Realising that her absence at the scene of crime would raise suspicion, Lakshmi returned to the house at 7 am as if she has heard the news of the murder in the morning and had come to the spot.

She feigned ignorance and joined the group of mourners and even wailed loudly along with other women. After collecting preliminary information from relatives and neighbours, the Police came to know that Lakshmi had visited the family on Saturday evening.

Before zeroing in on Lakshmi, the Police interrogated Gangaram and they did not obtain any leads as he could not even imagine that his illicit relationship would wipe out his family.

Later, the Police took Lakshmi for questioning where she could not give convincing answers.                       After intense interrogation, Lakshmi confessed to the crime and revealed her motive and also how she did it.