How a final farewell exposed a daughter’s murder plot for Rs 40 lakh in Karnataka’s Tumakuru

Ashok K V, Superintendent of Police, Tumakuru, said they have arrested the accused based on the complaint filed by S Anil Kumar, Pushpavathi’s brother.

A police officer said Pushpavathi, who worked as a tailor, was married to Babu Prasanna, an auto-rickshaw driver who passed away a year ago due to illness. The couple had two daughters — the elder, who went missing at 15, and Suchitra, the younger, who married Suresh.

“On February 12, Anil Kumar, around 4 am, received a call from Suchitra stating that Pushpavathi died due to a heart attack. She said after Pushpavathi complained of heart pain, they called an ambulance. But when the driver turned up, he said that Pushpavathi had passed away,” said a police officer.

Anil Kumar, who lives in the Melehalli village in the same district, reached Anupanahalli, where the family had decided to perform Pushpavathi’s final rites. Just before the cremation, he bent down to touch his sister’s feet and forehead in farewell and noticed faint bloodstains near her nostrils.

Questioning how a heart attack could have caused bloodstains around the mouth and nose, he grew suspicious. When Suchitra dismissed the marks as mosquito bites, he refused to proceed with the cremation and alerted the police.

A subsequent medical examination revealed that Pushpavathi had been smothered to death.

“During interrogation, Suchitra and her husband Suresh Kumar confessed to the murder. During the probe, it was revealed that Pushpavathi had recently sold property and deposited Rs 40 lakh in her bank account, which is suspected to be the motive for the crime,” said a police officer.

The Kyatasandra police have registered a case of murder, and are continuing the investigation.