BENGALURU: In a shocker, a 65-year-old woman was allegedly raped and murdered by her domestic help at her house in KAS Layout, BTM 2nd Stage, within the Mico Layout police limits on Saturday night. The accused later hanged himself in the same room.
The victim’s 27-year-old daughter, who stays on the first floor of the building, was unaware of the incident. She filed a rape and murder complaint on Sunday. The police are probing whether the victim was raped before she was murdered.
The accused, Devaraju (50), hailed from Hosur in Tamil Nadu. He was working at the victim’s house for the past eight years. He also worked in multiple houses in the colony and stayed at the victim’s house on Saturday night.
The police suspect that the accused allegedly raped the victim and later strangled her to death. She had injury marks on her neck.
‘Accused hangs self out of fear’
The accused is believed to have hanged himself out of fear, the police said. The victim’s husband, who holds a senior position in a reputed company, had gone abroad for work and returned home around 5 am on Sunday.
After his daughter opened the door, he went to his bedroom and screamed in shock on finding Devaraju hanging and his wife lying dead on the ground with injuries on her neck. Hearing his screams, the daughter rushed downstairs and alerted the police.
The police shifted both bodies to a hospital for postmortems. A senior police officer said that whether the victim was raped would be ascertained after the forensic examination. The motive for the murder is yet to be determined, while cases of murder and rape have been registered.