The 21-year-old woman was found dead in Doddaballapur, Bengaluru, in a lodge, where she was found under suspicious circumstances, leading police to immediately start a murder investigation. Vidya, an assistant in a private company, was found in a lodge at the time. Police suspect Anand is to blame for her death and are trying to catch him.
Vidya and her husband Anand lived in Gauribidanur, and they had a child together, said the police. The couple arrived at a lodge near Basava Bhavan in Doddaballapur on Wednesday. Anand left the lodge a little later in the evening, and Vidya remained in the room.
When lodge staff tried to contact the occupants hours after they arrived, they said they did not receive a response when they knocked on the door, which raised their suspicion. They then used a different key to get into the room, where they found Vidya lying motionless on the bed.
Police were immediately notified and arrived to investigate. Police did get some signs from the first investigation that the woman may have been strangled, police and lawyers said. Vidya's identity card strap is believed to have been used in the crime, they said.
The official post-mortem report of the victim’s death is still being processed, and there is no official cause of death so far, but the death is now believed to be not natural. The body has been sent for autopsy, and forensic experts are examining evidence that has been collected from the lodge room. Based on the circumstances of the case, the police have registered a murder case against Anand.
Investigators also discovered that the couple had a history of disputes. Police records indicate disputes between the couple over trivial matters. In June of last year, Anand had filed a missing person complaint with the local women’s police station claiming Vidya had disappeared. Police later located her and arranged counselling for the couple to try and resolve their differences. But the relationship was tense, and the two soon started living separately. These ongoing marital issues could also be an important factor in understanding what led to the woman’s death, officials said.
The case is complicated even more by a long-standing legal dispute between them. Anand was arrested under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act after it emerged that Vidya was allegedly a minor when the marriage took place, police said.
Now authorities are looking to see if any other circumstances related to the couple’s disputes before and after the marriage might have contributed to the incident. Meanwhile, Anand is unaccounted for, and police are still hunting for him. Family members are being questioned, and the police are looking for any evidence to establish the sequence of events in the case. Police officials said they would look at all angles as they come to terms with the tragic death of the young woman.
