TNN

Bangalore, Jun 13: A 74-year-old retired defence officer murdered his wife by assaulting her with a crow bar, even as she was playing with their 
10-month-old grandchild and their seven-year-old granddaughter was crying.

Soon after assaulting Rosylin, 58, K V Benny drank phenyl and tried to commit suicide. He is now recovering in hospital.

This happened at the couple's house at Vidyaranyapura on Thursday morning when Benny picked up a quarrel with Rosylin over calling back their son, who's settled in the US. Rosylin, who was pacifying her grandchild, apparantly asked Benny to leave her alone, which irked him. He picked up a crow bar and assaulted her on the head, police said.

Immediately after the assault, the granddaughter began crying and ran out of the house. She went to a neighbour and complained that her grandfather had hit her grandmother. When the neighbour rushed to the house, Rosylin was already unconscious. The 10-month-old, on her lap, was soaked with blood.

The police took Rosylin to MS Ramaiah hospital. However, she died by evening.

A `composed' Benny did not resist when detained by the police. But he vomited twice on the way and was rushed to hospital.

Background

Benny, hailing from Kerala, retired from the Army 25 years ago. The couple has two children, Sojan and Sheela. While Sojan is a software engineer settled in the US, Sheela is working as a computer programmer in a private company.

Till recently, the couple used to stay in a rented house at Mathikere, but shifted when Sojan built a house at Bloomfield Garden in Vidyaranyapura for them.

However, Sheela continued to stay in Mathikere. Whenever she went to work, she left her children with her parents. Police said Benny was known to be quarrelsome even while he was in service. After retirement, he had frequent arguments with his wife and even tried stabbing her once.

Of late, he wanted his son to return from the US and frequently picked up quarrels with his wife over that.