Bengaluru Woman Mahalakshmi's Suspected Killer Found Dead In Odisha

Bhubaneswar, Sep 25: A man suspected of killing a 29-year-old woman in Bengaluru and stuffing her dismembered body in a fridge before fleeing to his hometown was found hanging from a tree in Odisha’s Bhadrak district on Wednesday, police said.

The police also recovered a diary, believed to be belonging to the deceased man, Mukti Ranjan Ray, in which he confessed to killing the woman whose dismembered body was found in the fridge of her rented house in Bengaluru.

Bhadrak SP Varun Guntupalli said Ray (30), a resident of Bhuinpur village under Dhusuri police station in Bhadrak district, was the prime suspect in the woman's murder.

He was allegedly on the run following the discovery of the body parts of Mahalakshmi, a 29-year-old woman.

The accused had been living in Bengaluru's Hebbagodi area and worked at a fashion store in Malleswaram, where he met Mahalakshmi. Their relationship reportedly soured when Mahalakshmi began seeing another man, leading to frequent disputes. Investigators believe this tension resulted in her murder.

Earlier on the day, Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara had said the police had information about the presence of the suspect in Odisha, and teams formed to crack the case had been sent there to nab him.

“We have recovered the body of Mukti Ranjan Ray hanging from a tree. The body was handed over to his family after conducting post-mortem,” Dhusuri Police Station IIC Santanu Jena said.

The SP said the police recovered a diary of Ray in which he confessed that he had dismembered the body of the Bengaluru woman into 59 pieces after killing her.

Ray had returned to the village from Bengaluru after the murder, he added.

The maggot-infested body of Mahalakshmi, chopped into several pieces and stuffed into the fridge, was found by her mother and elder sister at her Vyalikaval home on Saturday.

The deceased woman's estranged husband on Sunday expressed suspicion about the involvement of a man known to Mahalakshmi, who had been living alone, in her neighborhood.