A family’s month-long desperate search for their 30-year-old daughter, who appeared to have abandoned her five-year-old son and has been missing since January 6, led the police to her husband. The SR Nagar police on Thursday arrested hotelier Chandrakanth S. Kondali, 35, for allegedly murdering his wife Akshatha, a software engineer, in their apartment at Sahakara Nagar in Hebbal. He then gave the keys of his car to a friend with instructions to drive to the forest near Shoolagiri in Tamil Nadu to dispose the body by setting it on fire, said the police.
Kondali, who owns a restaurant in S.R. Nagar, convinced his mother-in-law to file a missing person’s report after concocting a story that Akshatha had borrowed ₹50,000 from him to go on a holiday. To cover his tracks and send the police on a wild goose chase, he allegedly instructed the friend, Rajvinder Singh, to travel across the country with Akshatha’s phone.
According to the police, Chandrakanth and Akshatha got married 10 years ago. The couple have a five-year-old child.
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“Akshatha had resigned from Wipro and was set to join another IT company on January 15,” said her uncle Manjunath. “Before taking up the new assignment, she had planed many trips and even visited Dandeli with her friends in a car arranged by Chandrakanth.”
“On January 6 evening, the couple had a fight in their apartment after Chandrakanth accused Akshatha of having an affair. In anger, he strangled her to death. Then, he called Singh, who wrapped the body in a bedsheet, took it to the basement, loaded it in Chandrakanth’s car and drove to Shoolagiri,” said the police.
A little over a week ago, the Tamil Nadu police found the remains of the body. Family members identified it as Akshatha’s from remnants of the clothing.
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The police have arrested Chandrakanth and Singh for murder and destruction of evidence.
‘Akshatha had left behind all her belongings’
Restaurateur Chandrakanth convinced his in-laws to file a missing person’s complaint with false details when they were unable to contact their daughter. “He told them that she had borrowed ₹50,000 from him to go on a holiday on January 6, the day he murdered her,” said the police.
However, in her complaint to the police, Akshatha’s mother Rekha said that she last saw her daughter on January 9.
She reportedly told the police that they had visited Chandrakanth’s restaurant on January 9. In her complaint, she said that she waited outside while Akshatha went in to meet Chandrakanth. She goes on to say that when Akshatha did not return even after 30 minutes, she went inside, which was when Chandrakanth told her that Akshatha had taken ₹50,000 and left.
“We are still trying to ascertain why there is a discrepancy in the missing person’s complaint. We are yet to question Rekha who is distraught over her daughter’s death,” said a senior police officer.
According to her uncle Manjunath, Rekha would take care of the couple’s son when they were at work, as they lived nearby. “Akshatha would call her mother four to five times from her workplace to inquire about her son. But even after four days, Rekha did not hear from her daughter,” said Manjunath. “No one could get through to her either.”
The family began to suspect Chandrakanth after they noticed that Akshatha had left behind all her belongings, including her slippers, clothes and bags. “But Chandrakanth maintained that she had gone on a shopping spree for the trip,” Manjunath said.
After analysing CCTV footage and call record details, police called Chandrakanth for questioning.