Musician held for murder of wife, her cousin

Battered bodies of the women found in the morning by his mother-in-law

The marriage of Chandrasekhar and Preeti appeared to have turned sour.

The Girinagar police arrested a musician on the charge of battering his wife and her cousin to death at their home in Nandagokula early Thursday.

B.M. Chandrasekhar (57), a veena player, allegedly murdered his wife Preeti (38) and her cousin Veda (37) by hitting them with an iron rod around 1 a.m.

Police suspect the victims were sleeping in the same room. Shockingly, the two women were murdered even as Veda’s one-year-old baby was asleep in the hall.

The murder came to light when Preeti’s mother, Geetha Acharya, who came visiting, was greeted by the gory sight. The police found that she and her daughter had exchanged calls the previous night. Ms. Acharya told the police she came after Preeti was complaining about the state of her marriage.

Family sources said Preeti, from Mangalore, had married Chandrasekhar in 2010. It was her second and his third marriage and both had children from these marriages. However, this marriage was apparently dysfunctional.

The police, who looked for Chandrasekhar and found him holed up in a construction site in the area, arrested him and seized the murder weapon.

Dowry complaint

Police said Preeti, a schoolteacher, had previously filed two complaints against her husband alleging harassment, in June and December last year. While one case was filed by her in June 2012, the other was filed later in December that year. Based on her complaint, the police had booked him for dowry harassment and briefly imprisoned him.

Meanwhile, a relative of Chandrashekhar said there was a property dispute as well between the couple.

The couple lived in their own house on the ground floor of a two-storey building housing six units. Residents said they didn’t hear anything unusual at night. They said Preeti had gone to Mumbai with her two children and had returned with her cousin Veda.

A neighbour said that Chandrashekhar taught the veena to a few students. The vainika, who graduated with a degree in music from Mysore University, has a few albums to his credit and has performed on tours.