The Belagavi police have arrested a woman for the alleged murder of her husband on Thursday. The case came to light after the couple’s daughter, Sanjana (18), grew suspicious of her father Santosh Padmannanavar's (47) sudden death, which was initially attributed to a heart attack.
According to the police, Santosh Padmannanavar, a resident of Anjaneya Nagar in Belagavi, was initially believed to have died of natural causes on October 9. The mother Uma Padmannanavar (42) sent for Sanjana and other relatives in Bengaluru claiming Santosh had suffered a heart attack. Upon their return, the family proceeded with the cremation, believing her story. However, after the funeral, Sanjana began to suspect foul play.
When Sanjana requested to see the CCTV footage of their home, Uma evaded the request. The next day, when Sanjana persisted, she discovered that the footage from the day of her father's death, as well as the previous day, had been deleted. Her suspicions grew, leading her to file a police complaint, questioning her mother's involvement.
The police promptly exhumed Santosh’s body for a post-mortem. However, the autopsy report is awaited.
Upon further interrogation of Uma, it was discovered that she had conspired the murder with two accomplices. One of the accomplices was identified as a man named Shobit from Mangalore, with whom she had developed a relationship on Facebook.
Santosh had discovered the affair and confronted Uma and Shobit, leading Uma to plot his murder. On the night of October 8, she allegedly gave Santosh sleeping pills before Shobit and his friend arrived at their home. Together, they suffocated Santosh with a pillow, and Uma later fabricated the heart attack story.
Despite Uma’s attempts to erase the CCTV evidence, the police were able to obtain footage from a neighbor’s camera, which helped corroborate Sanjana’s suspicions. Uma, along with her accomplices, has been arrested, and further investigations are underway.