The man, who brutally killed his partner in Karnataka's Bengaluru and chopped up her body in more than 50 pieces before dying by suicide last month, in his suicide note, claimed that he acted in self-defence. The dismembered body of Tripura native Mahalakshmi was found stuffed into a fridge at her flat in Bengaluru’s Vyalikaval area last month on September 21.
Her killer, 30-year-old Mukti Ranjan Rai, was found hanging from a tree in Odisha's Bhadrak district, four days later on September 25.
As per a report by NDTV, Rai, in his death note, claimed that Mahalakshmi had earlier intended to kill him and dispose of his body in a black suitcase. "If I had not killed her, Mahalaxmi would have killed me," the note read. Incidentally, a black suitcase was found near the fridge in which Mahalaxmi's body was found stuffed.
"Her intention was to cut my body into pieces, put them in the suitcase and throw them away after killing me. If I had not killed her, Mahalaxmi would have killed me and dumped my body. I killed her in self-defence," the note read.
As per Roy's suicide note, the 29-year-old woman was pressuring him for marriage. He alleged that Mahalaxmi had expensive demands and beat him up when he failed to fulfil them. "Mahalaxmi's demand was continuously increasing, even though I had given her a gold chain and Rs 7 lakh. She also beats me up," it read.
Mahalakshmi's murder
As per the police, Mahalakshmi was married and had a child, but lived separately from her family. She was in a relationship with her team head Mukti Ranjan Roy. Mahalaxmi, who worked at a popular mall in Bengaluru, was last seen at her workplace on September 1.
Weeks later, her neighbours reported a foul smell coming from her house and informed her relatives. On September 21, her mother reached her house and found her daughter's body chopped in 59 pieces and stuffed inside her fridge. During the probe, it was found that her boyfriend had also been missing since September 1.
Police traced Roy's location to Odisha's Bhadrak. However, it was too late by the time they reached him, as he had killed himself by then, Police recovered a suicide note near his body which contained his confession and details of his relationship with Mahalakshmi.
In the note, Roy reportedly confessed to strangling Mahalakshmi on the intervening night of September 2 and 3. He wrote that after killing the woman, he bought a sharp weapon from the market the next morning and cut her body into pieces in the washroom. He then stuffed the parts in the fridge and cleaned the washroom with acid.
Roy then fled to Odisha with his younger brother.
Police To File Chargesheet
As per the NDTV report, police will soon file a chargesheet in the case. "We will soon file the Chargesheet as we have now got the translation of his suicide note and his postmortem report from the Odisha Police," the report quoted B Dyananad, the commissioner of Bengaluru Police, as saying.
Police are yet to recover the weapon used by Roy to cut Mahalakshmi's body, but a woman who runs a small shop of cutters used for domestic purposes at Vyalikaval market in Bengaluru identified him when his photo was shown to him, the police said.