Untied knots

 

 

Murali, who was the manager of a bank, was living a happy retired life. He owned a two storey house in the metropolis. He lived downstairs with his wife Manorama (55), son Manjunath (37), daughter-in-law Rashmi (34), and two grandchildren. Manjunath was a sales manager at a big store. Rashmi used to help her mother-in-law with housework. Murali had rented out his upstairs house. When the house became vacant, Murali started looking for tenants. Then an unmarried young man named Akshay (28) came and asked to rent that house. Murali told him categorically that they do not give rent to unmarried people, but he was not quiet. 'I will get married within another year. If not, get me out of the house,' said Akshay, who immediately gave up even one year's rent. No matter how much Murali refused, he was not satisfied. At-last rented his house to him.

Akshay, who was a great musician, was also a good singer. He was doing night shift duty for 15 days a month. He used to come home at around 6 a.m. and go to bed. It was afternoon, and he was busy with his work after cooking and eating. After a few days, he got to know Murali's grandchildren and, in the evening, called them both to his house and used to play with them. Thus, one evening, when Rashmi went to Akshay's house to fetch her children, Akshay got to know her better. He attracted Rashmi. On the pretext of bringing her children in the next few days, Rashmi went to his house and started chatting with him for a long time. As the days went by, physical contact was established between the two of them. Rashmi's mother-in-law, Manorama, who had closely observed Rashmi's behavior, warned her not to go to Akshay's house on the pretext of bringing children. Moreover, he began to closely observe Rashmi's movements every evening. Thus, Rashmi and Akshay were not able to meet. Rashmi was angry with her mother-in-law because of this.

Meanwhile, one day Akshay met Murali and said, 'A classmate has come to my office. He will not bring his family here until he is married and his children's school term is over. So if you agree, I will keep him in my house for 3 months. If necessary, I will pay more rent.' After listening to Manorama's advice, Murali agreed. The next week, Akshay's friend Sudhir started living with him. Sudhir's and Akshay's office hours were different, and they were home together only on weekends. One day, Rashmi went to Akshay's house after seeing the time when her in-laws were not at home. Sudhir was not at home then. Since there had been no physical contact between them for a long time, both of them indulged in sex. Meanwhile, Manorama, who finished her work early and returned home, did not find her daughter-in-law in the house and suspiciously went upstairs and knocked on the door. Rashmi came out of his bedroom, fixing her disheveled clothes, when Akshay opened the door. Manorama realized the situation as soon as she saw her condition.

'Mother, please do not tell this matter to my husband or father-in-law. I'll hang up if you tell. She vowed not to go to the upper house again. Manorama did not inform anyone about this matter because of the future of her son and grandchildren. But she decided to get Akshay out of their house as soon as possible. After this incident, Rashmi and Akshay's relationship stopped. She nailed it. One day she secretly met Akshay and said, 'My mother-in-law is causing trouble in our relationship let's do something and kill my mother-in-law'. After a few days, he gave her ten sleeping pills and said, 'Grind this and mix it with your mother-in-law's food. Tell me when she falls asleep. I will look for the next job' he said.

Similarly, one Thursday afternoon, Rashmi crushed sleeping pills, mixed them in millet, and served them to her mother-in-law. Within ten minutes of the meal, Manorama fell into a deep sleep. After that, Rashmi told her father-in-law Murali that she had a job in the bank and took him to the bank with her. Before leaving the house, she sent a message to Akshay on WhatsApp saying, 'Mother is alone'. She left the back door open before leaving the house. Akshay, with his friend Mohan, went to the room where Manorama was fast asleep, by putting a pillow over her face they killed her. Then both of them brought her dead body to the bathroom, laid her body there, and left the house.

After about an hour, Rashmi and her father-in-law Murali who had to bank returned home. Murali opened the door with his key when the door didn't open, no matter how many times he rang the bell. When both went inside the house, they were shocked to find Manorama lying near the bathroom. A doctor was called. Doctors said that Manorama was dead. When Rashmi asked him if his mother-in-law might have died of a heart attack, he said yes. After writing the death certificate with them, Rashmi informed everyone that her mother-in-law had died of a heart attack. The family buried Manorama's body in the graveyard the same evening.

After some days, Sudhir, who was living with Akshay, suspected that his friend and Rashmi might be involved in Manorama's murder. Because Akshay had told him that he was in a relationship with Rashmi. Moreover, after Manorama's death, his behavior changed. Sudhir is disgusted by his friend's behavior. Sudhir discussed with Manjunath about the death of Manorama and relationship of his friend with Rashmi. Manjunath told Sudhir to Secretly check Akshay's mobile phone and see if we can get any clues,' Manjunath instructed him and gave him his wife Rashmi's mobile number. The next day, Sudhir noticed Akshay's mobile phone while he was fast asleep. Read the WhatsApp chats between Akshay and Rashmi. Through that, he was assured of the relationship between  two of them. On the day of Manorama's death at 2 PM, Sudhir read Rashmi's message to Akshay, saying, 'I am going out with my father-in-law now only amother-in-law at home', and immediately took a photo of it and showed it to Manjunath.

Then Manjunath went to the nearby police station and filed a written complaint that he was suspicious about his mother's death. After that, Rashmi was called to the police station, and the truth came out when she was interrogated. When Akshay and Mohan are interrogated, they admit to having committed the murder themselves. Later, the buried body was exhumed, and a post-mortem was conducted. The doctor said that the hyoid bone of the deceased was broken and reported that Manorama died due to strangulation. Meanwhile, Manjunath threw Rashmi out of his house. All three accused were arrested and produced before the court. All the accused were acquitted, as the case rested on circumstantial evidence only.(1)

 

 Reference

1] Dr.D.V Guruprasad, 2023 December 17, “ಕೊಲೆಗಾರ್ತಿಯ ಚಾಲಾಕಿತನ”, A Kshana, Vijayavani, Bengaluru, Page No-II

 2] Image from pinterest