Daijiworld Media Network - Madikeri (SP)

Madikeri, Feb 24: In an incident which happened at Kumbaladalu village within the limits of Napoklu police station, a woman who was living alone was murdered for her gold ornaments. The victim of this incident was Radha (74), wife of the late Karnayyanna Uthappa.

Out of the three children of Radha, elder son lives at Mysuru as he works there while the youngest son, Nandakumar, works at Bengaluru. Her daughter, who is married, lives about two kilometres away from Radha's home.

On Saturday morning, Nandakumar had called his mother over cellphone but Radha did not respond. Worried over lack of response, he called a neighbour, Leelavathi, and told her about non-response by his mother. Leelalvathi who checked the house of Radha which remained closed, contacted Radha's daughter, Jhansi, over phone. Jhansi came there, found the front door locked from inside, and realized after thorough check that the rear door was open. Radha was found lying lifeless inside her room with blood oozing out of her nose. About a hundred grams of gold ornaments kept inside the steel almirah were found missing.

Radha's son-in-law, Kulllachanda Dinesh, registered complaint in Naopklu police station. Deputy superintendent of police, Sundar Raj, Madikeri rural station circle inspector, Siddayya, sniffer dogs, finger print experts etc visited the spot.

Prima facie, the woman appeared to have been killed by smothering her. Postmortem report is expected to throw more light. The district crime intelligence bureau and Napoklu police have begun investigation in right earnest.