Husband murders wife, burns her body and misleads police

Bengaluru: A 29-year-old woman, who was reported missing, was found dead. The police have arrested her husband and his associate for murder, destruction of evidence and misleading the police.

The deceased has been identified as Akshatha who was married to Chandrakanth S Kondali (38) for 10 years. Akshatha was a software engineer and worked for Wipro. She had deceied to quit her job in December and join another IT firm by Janury 15. In the mean time, she wanted to go on a tour to North Inida with her friends. Kondali and Akshatha fought frequently over his suspicions that she was having an affair. Kondali ran a bar and restaurant named Silver Spoon in Shantinagar. The couple’s four-year-old son stayed with Akshatha’s parents.

Kondali (38) strangled his wife Akshatha at their flat in SMS Elite Apartment in Kempapura on January 6.  After strangling Akshatha to death, Kondali called up his associate Rajvir Singh, who worked with him at the bar, with the instruction to rent a car and bring it to the apartment’s basement.

When Singh arrived with the car, they wrapped Akshatha’s body in a blanket and laid it in the boot. Kondali asked Singh to drive to Tamil Nadu and spoke to him constantly on the phone. He directed Singh to find a remote place in Tamil Nadu border to burn the body. Singh drove to an isolated spot in Shoolagiri in Hosur district, soaked the body with diesel and set it ablaze. He then drove to North India with Akshatha’s mobile phone, which he turned on regularly. On January 7, the Shoolagiri police received information about a woman’s burnt body, and booked a case of murder and attempt to destroy evidence.

Kondali gave conflicting information about Akshatha’s disappearance to her parents, who live in Sahakara Nagar. He told Akshatha’s mother, Rekha that she took Rs 50,000 and had gone on a trip to north India. Despite believing it at first, Akshatha’s parents grew suspicious when they failed to receive a call from her from January 7. Her brother asked Kondali why Akshatha did not pack her clothes or wore her slippers.

Having not heard from her daughter for 18 days, Rekha complained to the Sampangiram Nagar police, prompted by Kondali, who said Akshatha disappeared after taking Rs 50,000 from him.

During the probe, the police found that Akshatha’s phone was active in several states over a period of time. It also appeared odd that only Akshatha’s parents were keen about finding the missing woman, while Kondali seemed indifferent.

When Akshatha’s family revealed their suspicions about him, the police took Kondali for questioning on February 5, and he confessed to the crime. They took him and Akshatha’s parents to Shoolagiri, where they made a positive identification of her body with her clothes and other personal effects.

The police also arrested Singh, and confiscated Akshatha’s mobile phone and the car he used for the crime.