Bengaluru: Even the police were shocked at the brutality with which 35-year-old T. Siddalingappa and his paramour Chandrakala committed the murders. The two are currently lodged in the state prison. It took a dedicated investigation to crack the mystery of half cut, headless women’s bodies found 24 kms away from each other. Siddalingappa and Chandrakala had planned to kill more known women, at least five, in the most brutal manner.
The truth came out in the investigation that this was done by Siddalingappa to please his lover. He told the police that these women met their gory end as they had forced his lover into prostitution. Outraged by this Siddalingappa hatched a conspiracy to kill them in the most brutal manner.
The case:
The severed bodies of two women were found near a water canal in Mandya district of Karnataka on June 8. They were found at separate locations. The upper part of the bodies had been chopped off and the body parts from the hip were found in a semi-decomposed state.
The killers had severed the upper part of the bodies of both the women and stuffed the lower parts in gunny bags and threw them into water canals in two different places.
One severed body was recovered in the Baby Lake canal near K. Bettanahalli. The second was found at the CDS Canal near Arakere village which come under Pandavapura town and Arakere police stations in Mandya district respectively. The killers had tied the legs of the mutilated bodies.
The barbarity of the killers had shocked the local people and it created a tense situation in the region.
Superintendent of Police of Mandya district Yathish , who monitored the investigation, told IANS that the police department took up the case as a challenge. Not just human but elaborate technical efforts were also put in. It took almost 50 days to solve the case. A team of 40 to 50 cops travelled to three to four states and gathered information.
“It was a horrifying incident. We didn’t expect a woman to be involved with him, it was a shock to us. We didn’t get why and who carried out these murders. He was in fact planning to kill a few more women,” he said.
This was not a matter of money. The woman was his paramour. Though he had a family, he lived with her. The victims had forced her into prostitution. Siddalingappa was possessive about his lover and carried out the brutal murders, Yathish explained.
“We have to be careful to prevent such incidents in the future. It was very difficult to identify the bodies. After the identification, within four-five days the murderers were caught. The murders were most brutal, we can’t comment more on it,” he added.
The investigation:
Not able to make any headway in the investigation, the Mandya police announced a Rs 1 lakh reward for anyone who could give any clues about the murders.
The police team circulated 10,000 handbills in the surrounding areas about the mutilated bodies and traced the identity of the murdered women. They formed 9 special teams and 2 technical teams to crack the case.
The police verified 1,116 cases of missing women in the state and neighbouring states. The police stumbled upon the double murders when they came across the case of missing Geetha in Chamarajanagar police station. Geetha was one of the victims whose body was cut into half.
The police followed the case as there were similarities between Geetha and the recovered half severed body. The police tracked the phone calls made by Geetha and managed to nab the killers.
The accused confessed during interrogation that they had killed another woman named Kumuda in Bengaluru. They stated that they carried the body of Kumuda on a bike and threw it somewhere.
The police arrested Siddalingappa, a resident of Kodihalli colony near Kudur town in Ramnagar district and his lover Chandrakala, a resident of Haravu village near Pandavapura town in Mandya district. The women whose bodies were cut in half were identified as Parvathi, a resident of Hosadurga in Chitradurga district and Geetha a.k.a Putti, a resident of Chamarajanagar.
The killer duo had killed Parvathi on May 30 and Geetha on June 3. The bodies of the victims were cut into two pieces as the killers found it difficult to transport their bodies on a bike from their home. Later, the bodies were thrown at different places.