Suspect in Bengaluru woman’s murder found dead in Odisha, suicide note recovered

A suspect in the murder case of a woman in Bengaluru, whose dismembered body was found inside a fridge, was on Wednesday found dead in Odisha, Bengaluru Police said.

The man’s body was found hanging from a tree in Bhadrak district and the local police also recovered a suicide note. The man has been identified as Mukti Ranjan Rai.

A bag, notebook, and a scooty were recovered from the crime scene. The body was sent for post-mortem. A purported suicide note was found inside the notebook, in which Rai stated that he had killed Mahalakshmi, the Bengaluru woman, and chopped her body into pieces and kept it in a fridge.

When Rai’s body was found, the Odisha Police did not know who he was. It was not until the Bengaluru Police called in the evening and asked about Rai’s whereabouts that the Odisha Police got to know that he was a murder suspect.

The Bengaluru Police had been trying to locate Rai for two days and detained his brother. When Rai’s brother got a call from Odisha Police about his brother’s death, he informed the Bengaluru Police.

The body of Mahalakshmi, 29, was found chopped into 59 pieces in a refrigerator in her flat on September 21.

Mahalakshmi used to live in a one-bedroom apartment in Bengaluru’s Vyalikaval area. She was married but was living separately from her husband.