It took five years of tenacious police investigation to solve the murder of an elderly woman whose body was found stashed in a wardrobe.
Seventy-year-old Shanthakumari’s highly decomposed body was recovered from her house in Kengeri Satellite Town, West Bengaluru, on May 5, 2017. Its hands and legs bound, the corpse was entombed in a wardrobe shelf plastered with cement and red soil.
The body was discovered by the landlord, Naveen, who was alarmed by a persistent foul smell emanating from the ground-floor house that he had rented to a family from Sagar, Shivamogga district.
The tenants — Radha Vasudev Rao, 50, and her son Sanjay Vasudev Rao, 27 — had secretly left on February 2, 2017, citing an emergency back home. They had left behind some furniture and various household items. Their phone numbers were switched off, the landlord said.
A month after the family disappeared, Naveen approached the police, asking what he should do. He didn’t get a clear answer, and another two months passed. Since the smell did not go away, he opened the door with a spare key to check what was causing it. A wall-mounted wardrobe caught his attention. Its doors were plastered with cement. The smell was the most disgusting there. He called the police.
When the wardrobe doors were broken open, the corpse was found on the lower shelf. Police launched a murder investigation and began a search for Radha and her son.
According to police, the mother and son killed Shanthakumari because she was “ultra-conservative”.
“Shanthakumari was uncompromising about food and hygiene. She would not touch outside food and always demanded that Radha cook for her. She was a stickler for cleanliness and would take a bath several times a day,” a police officer who is part of the investigation told DH.
When Sanjay got her Gobi Manchurian from a restaurant one day, Shanthakumari refused to eat it and threw it away. In a fit of rage, Sanjay smashed a rolling pin on her head. She lost consciousness and died three days later, the officer said.
Radha and Sanjay didn’t tell anyone about the death for the fear of getting caught. As the body started to decompose, they kept it in the wardrobe and plastered it with cement and red soil.
They remained in the house for four more months. When the stench became unbearable, they disappeared from the house, taking only essential luggage. They later called up the landlord and informed him that they had gone to their hometown due to an emergency. He never heard back from them.
Naveen told DH: “Never in my wildest dreams did I think Shanthakumari’s body was stashed in my house. I thought the family had moved away due to some genuine issue.”
After the body was found, police picked up Sanjay’s friend, Nandeesh A S, for questioning but there were no clues there.
Police recently reopened the case and formed a special team under Kengeri inspector Vasanth C to track down Radha and Sanjay. Based on the information provided by Nandeesh, police were able to arrest Radha and Sanjay from near the bus station in Kolhapur on October 2, 2022.
Sanjay had moved to Kolhapur with his mother and was working at a hotel.