Engineer’s wife stays locked in after his death

The death of K R Jayaram, retired chief engineer, has left his neighbours in Padmanabhanagar in shock.

A regular evening walker till he had a fall a fortnight ago, Jayaram, 80 (age), had been a constant presence in the area for about 20 years, since he built his house in this south Bengaluru extension.

Jayaram’s body was found on March 1, 10 days after his death, when neighbours complained of a foul smell emanating from his house. His wife Vijayalakshmi had continued to live inside the house all through the 10 days.

Jayaram retired 18 years ago from Tata Consulting Engineers in Bengaluru.

The police had got in touch with Jayaram’s former colleagues, and were looking for Jayaram’s relatives to perform his last rites. On March 3, Metrolife had reported how the police had been looking for help in the case.

Eventually, police tracked down a nephew of Jayaram’s who completed the rites, a neighbour says.

The Jayarams lost their daughter, a 40-year-old dentist, on July 5 last year. The couple never came to terms with the fact that their daughter was no more, neighbours say.

This reporter’s attempts to meet Vijayalakshmi went in vain. Knocking on the door and calling out yielded no result; she just wouldn’t respond. Neighbours say she wouldn’t open the door for anybody, and has been like that for years. An immediate neighbour recalls Jayaram was the only one from the family who would interact with people in the vicinity.

“He would acknowledge us when he went by walking. But he wouldn’t talk much. He always told us he had no relatives or friends,” says the neighbour.

Many found the behaviour of Jayaram and Vijayalakshmi strange. “There are days when the wife would talk well and other days when she wouldn’t talk at all. There were also days when she would blabber and talk without any connection. We always thought she needed help, and even offered to help, but the couple always maintained a distance and nobody knew what was going on inside their house,” another neigbour says.

In the last two weeks, people living in the vicinity had heard screams and howls from inside the house, sometimes even at midnight. “We started suspecting something was wrong when we didn’t see anyone step out of the house for 10 days, and there were no lights at night,” says a neighbour whose house is just behind the Jayarams’.

A family living adjacent to the Jayarams since 2010 had never found an opportunity to strike a conversation with the couple. “But we would always hear the wife cry. It was hard to distinguish whether she was crying or laughing because the sounds were similar. Last month, I saw Vijayalakshmi wearing a set of 12 bangles and at least three or four necklaces. But her sari was soiled and she was stinking. I found that abnormal. We have never seen the lights on in their home after dark,” says 70-year-old Sunderaraman, Jayaram’s immediate neighbour.

Some neighbours say Jayaram and his wife were upset with her daughter over a relationship she was interested in, and had locked her up in the house. “Some people say they heard the daughter scream for help before she died. Nobody knows what is going on in the house,” Sunderaraman says. Sunderaraman and his family have always wanted to help but the Jayarams never volunteered any information. “The message was loud and clear that they didn’t want to mingle with anybody,” he says.

There were days when Jayaram would walk up to the main road to a darshini-style restaurant and take home a parcel for his wife and himself, he recalls. Vishwanath, whose house is located on a street next to Jayaram’s, says Vijayalakshmi is now staying by herself.

“The police took her to Nimhans and brought her back. We don’t know what happened after that,” says Vishwanath.

Under watch

Beat policemen are visiting the Jayarams’ house every day and keeping an eye on it.

Police helping hand

Janardhan, the inspector at Banashankari Police station, has been trying to trace Jayaram’s relatives but he hasn’t succeeded much. “We have learnt that Jayaram snapped ties with all his relatives in 1977. We managed to trace one of Jayaram’s nephews to perform his last rites but they too weren’t very keen to take Vijayalakshmi on. We want to help Vijayalakshmi by admitting her in NIMHANS but there is no cooperation from her end. She doesn’t open the door for anybody and has locked herself inside. We have never come across such a peculiar case before,” Janardhan tells Metrolife.