Bengaluru murder case: Accused family claims victim of blackmailing him

Bhubaneswar, Sep 26 : A day after the suicide of the prime suspect in the sensational Bengaluru Mahalaxmi murder case, the family members of the deceased Mukthiranjan Roy on Thursday alleged that the victim woman Mahalaxmi used to blackmail and extract money from Roy.

The accused had allegedly revealed about committing the crime and the reasons behind such a heinous act to his younger brother before suicide.

“He stayed with me for the last 10 to 12 days in my mess at Berhampur before committing suicide. He had also told me about committing the crime. He said that she (Mahalaxmi) was blackmailing him constantly and also extracted large amounts of money and gold ornaments from him," said Roy's younger brother on Thursday.

He added that the family members were angry with him as he couldn’t send any money to the family.

“My brother also told me that he had squandered a minimum of Rs 7 to 8 lakhs after being blackmailed by Mahalaxmi. She had taken a gold chain, one of the three rings he bought for his brothers,” he said.

Roy’s brother also alleged that once while Roy was on his way to Kerala, Mahalaxmi intercepted her motorcycle and got him beaten by labelling false kidnapping charges against him.

“The public beat him and handed him over to police who later let him go after taking Rs 1000 as a bribe,” he said.

He also accused that the brothers of Mahalaxmi had threatened Roy that they would kill him and his brother if he (Roy) failed to obey the instructions of Mahalaxmi.

Roy’s younger brother also claimed that on the day of the crime, his brother had allegedly gone to meet Mahalaxmi after she called him over the phone. She allegedly threatened to kill Roy and his brother. This angered Roy who in a fit of rage strangulated her to death.

“When it came to fore that the prime accused in Mahalaxmi murder belonged to Bhadrak district in Odisha, a team of Bengaluru Police had come to arrest Mukthiranjan Roy. But, before they could nab him, he committed suicide by hanging,” said Bhadrak SP Varun Guntupalli.

He added that Roy committed suicide out of fear of getting arrested and also confessed to have committing the crime in his suicide note.

“The note was found in a book inside a bag kept on the seat of his parked near the suicide spot,” said SP Guntupalli.

Roy had also revealed to his mother about killing Mahalaxmi in Bengaluru before committing suicide on Wednesday morning.

Notably, the 26-year-old Mahalaxmi, a single working woman in Bengaluru, was killed in Bengaluru on September 3 by Roy who later chopped her body into more than 50 pieces and stuffed the body parts into a refrigerator.

Roy was on Wednesday morning found hanging from a tree near a crematorium in Bhuinpur village under Dhusuri police station in Bhadrak district.