Bengaluru: A quiet neighbourhood in Srirampura witnessed grief and outrage Friday morning as news broke of a horrific serial murder, allegedly committed by 52-year-old Indushekhar. Relatives and close friends of the victims rushed to Rajajinagar police station and demanded the harshest punishment for the alleged killer.According to Rajashekar K, a relative of one of the victims, Rupavathi, suspicion began to build when his family members received WhatsApp messages from the phone of Indushekhar’s wife Sunitha, but nobody received any calls. It was later revealed that Indushekhar had been secretly using Sunitha’s phone to send messages to his mother-in-law to conceal the murder of his wife.Rajashekar recalled that Indushekhar last met himabout 20 days ago, just ahead of Dasara. Describing Indushekhar as an unemployed man of questionable character previously arrested for chain-snatching, Rajashekar said: “What I want to say is that he should get severe punishment. If the system can’t ensure that, they should hand him over to us; we’ll take care of him.”Neighbours who lived in the locality for decades recalled a history of friction involving the suspect. Dilip, a driver, noted that while the family gathered for Dasara, underlying tensions were brewing over the house where Indushekhar lived, which is said to have belonged to his mother-in-law. “He had some issues with his mother-in-law. He wanted to renovate the house, or something like that caused a lot of friction in the family. He called his mother-in-law to the house to resolve the issue,” Dilip said.Dilip also noted that Indushekhar visited the house only occasionally, often wearing a coat to give the impression that he had a white-collar job, though he was known to drink, smoke bidis, and have a criminal record for chain snatching.Kin accuse police of inactionOutside Rajajinagar police station, grieving relatives confronted the authorities. Mamata, whose niece Divya was among the victims, told the media that police failed to act promptly when the family tried to report the missing members. “Why didn’t you take the complaint? We had been trying for a week. Please answer us, sir. We are begging,” Mamata said, referring to the cops.Police, however, disputed the allegation, stating that an official missing-person FIR was registered as soon as a formal complaint was received.Complainant Thungamma, Nalini’s mother, alleged that the gruesome massacre was committed over the Rs 3-crore property belonging to his wife’s family. With tears in her eyes, she said the family never imagined that Indushekhar would behave so cruelly.Colleague recalls final chatFor V Mohankumar, a close friend and colleague of another victim, Shankar, at a sari-weaving centre in Bandireddy Circle, the news brought an agonising end to a week of worry. Shankar had been missing since Oct 30 night, and his phone had remained switched off — a highly unusual occurrence.“Shankar would never switch off his phone,” Mohankumar said. “While sipping a cup of coffee this morning, I turned on the TV and saw this news. As soon as I heard it, I dropped the glass and came straight to the police station.”Mohankumar recalled that just the week before, Shankar had mentioned plans to visit Goa with friends and had asked him to lend some money for the trip. Working together for daily wages of around Rs 800, the two often helped each other financially.
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