Wife, mom-in-law stabbed realtor to death inside SUV in Bengaluru
BENGALURU: The murder of a realtor inside his SUV at Soladevanahalli on Saturday evening has been cracked with the arrest of his 19-year-old wife and her mother. The arrested Yashasvini and her mother Hema Bai (37) had allegedly stabbed 37-year-old Lokanath Singh to death, the police said.
Singh and Yashasvini, who were related, were in love for two years despite opposition from Yashasvini’s parents over their 18-year age gap. The two got married in December last year and registered it at the registrar’s office in Kunigal. Singh had allegedly coerced Yashasvini to marry him by blackmailing her that he would make public videos of their private intimate moments.
After registering their marriage, Yashasvini continued to live in her parents’ house in Chikkabanavara, and her parents were not aware of the marriage. Yashasvini had recently come to know about Singh’s addictions and multiple affairs. Deciding to divorce him, she told her parents that she had been married. But Singh did not want the divorce and and started harassing Yashasvini and her parents. Hema then hatched a plot to kill Singh as she was upset that her daughter’s life was getting destroyed, the police said.
On Saturday, Yashasvini called Singh to Chikkabanavara and asked him to take her on a long drive. She had packed some food, which she had laced with sleeping pills. Enroute, Singh bought liquor bottles and they went near vacant plots of his property in Soladevanahalli. He ate the food and started dozing off inside the SUV. Hema, who had followed the SUV all the while in an autorickshaw, had arrived at the spot. She got into the SUV and stabbed Singh in the throat, killing him on the spot, the police said. The police are also investigating whether another person was involved in the crime.
Singh had come with his gunman to the spot. But the two women had sent the gunman to get something. By the time he returned, Singh was lying in a pool of blood, dead, and the two women nowhere to be seen. The women had escaped from the spot by taking an autorickshaw. Singh hailed from Kuduru on Magadi and was close to a Congress MLA from one of the constituencies in Ramanagara district.
Singh was accused in a case registered by the assistant commissioner of police (ACP) attached to the Byatarayanapura subdivision in November 2023. The ACP had complained against the former Byatarayanapura police inspector and his accomplice Singh. The inspector had in 2022 investigated a case that occurred in Hoskote in Bengaluru Rural police limits only to recover Rs 75 lakh that was stolen by the driver of a businessman.
Singh, who was aware of the theft, had brought it to the notice of the inspector, who managed to recover 72 lakh. The inspector used the money for personal reasons, instead of placing it in the police station or government treasury. Both the inspector and Singh were arrested in the case.