BHUBANESWAR: Mukti Ranjan Ray, the prime suspect in Bengaluru’s Mahalakshmi murder case, had reportedly planned to dispose of her body parts after 2-3 months, claimed his younger brother Satya. On Wednesday, Mukti’s body was found hanging from a tree at Bhuipur village in Bhadrak district.
Police suspected that he took the extreme step apprehending arrest.A Bengaluru police team had been camping in Odisha to nab him for the past few days.
“My brother came to me in Berhampur where I am studying and told me everything. After throttling the woman to death at her home, he had planned to hang the body to make it look like a case of suicide. When his plan didn’t work out, he chopped her into pieces and stuffed the body parts in the refrigerator,” said Satya, an engineering student.
Satya said Mahalakshmi, who was separated from her husband, had betrayed Mukti, who wanted to marry her. Their relationship got strained for some reasons. Both Mukti and Mahalakshmi used to work in a garment store in a shopping mall in Bengaluru.
“My brother said the woman had been demanding money from him. She was also torturing him. Recently, the two of them had gone to Kerala where they had an altercation, following which she told the police that my brother had kidnapped her. My brother was beaten up by the police and later they released him,” Satya said.
He claimed that Mukti wanted to get rid of Mahalakshmi because of her alleged misconduct and her habit of frequently asking for money and jewellery.
“My brother told me that he strangled her to death following a scuffle on Sept 3. He tried to hang her body from the ceiling, but failed. At night, he chopped her body and stashed the pieces in the refrigerator,” Satya said, adding he had planned to dispose of the body parts after 2-3 months.
Satya, whose statement was recorded by Bengaluru police, said Mukti ended his life out of guilt. “He had slipped into depression after killing her brutally. He told me that he was not in his senses when he killed her and later chopped her body into pieces,” said Satya.
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Bengaluru police are investigating the gruesome murder of Mahalakshmi, whose body was dismembered into 59 pieces. The prime suspect is one of her boyfriends from Odisha, currently evading capture in West Bengal. Police have seized a refrigerator suspected to be involved in the crime and are actively pursuing leads to apprehend him.
