In what seems to be a plot straight out of a crime thriller, the police found the skeletal remains of a woman buried in a wardrobe in a locked house in Kengeri Satellite Town on Sunday.
According to the Kengeri police, the landlord, Naveen, approached the police complaining of foul smell emanating from the house he had rented out at Gandhinagar in K.S. Town. He told the police that the one-year rental agreement had lapsed and the tenants — engineering student Sanjay, his mother, Shashikala, and grandmother Shantakumari, who were from Shivamogga — had not been seen since February.
The police broke open the door of the house and found a room locked. Once they were in the room, the police saw two drums and found a blood-stained sari and a cement bag in one of them. The foul smell was traced to a wardrobe whose doors were plastered. The police then broke open the wardrobe doors to find the floor underneath cracked. Further digging revealed the skeletal remains. After seeing the long hair and the clothes, they concluded the remains were of a woman. The police suspect they could be of either Ms. Shashikala or Ms. Shantakumari.
Mr. Naveen told the police Mr. Sanjay borrowed ₹50,000 from him on February 2 citing an emergency. He said Mr. Sanjay and his mother claimed that the grandmother was visiting their relatives and promised that they would return soon. However, the owner has since not been able to get in touch with them. Police said they were treating Mr. Sanjay as a suspect and were on the lookout for him.
The skeletal remains were shifted to Rajarajeshwari Medical College and Hospital for a post-mortem.