Twist in death of elderly woman: Daughter-in-law killed her for refusing breakfast

MADIKERI: In a major twist in connection with the death of a 73-year-old woman which occurred on April 14, the Madikeri Rural police have taken her daughter-in-law into custody on charges of murder. Earlier, it was believed to be a natural death.

Police said that Bindu (26) killed her mother-in-law Poovamma (73), a resident of Maragodi in Madikeri taluk, as the latter refused to eat breakfast. Bindu admitted her crime at the police station during questioning.

Bindu lives in Maragodi with mother-in-law Poovamma and husband Prasanna, who is a teacher by profession, and the couple have a one-year-old daughter. There was resentment between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law for many years, and they used to quarrel with each other frequently.

On April 14, Bindu called her mother-in-law to have breakfast, but the latter refused. The two had an argument over the issue and an angry Bindu struck Poovamma on the head with a mobile phone. Poovamma collapsed on the bed and was bleeding, following which she died.

Sources said that Bindu admitted to the police during questioning that she called her husband Prasanna, who was away in Madikeri for examination paper valuation duty on that day and told him that Poovamma had collapsed in the house. But she was dead before her son reached home. Later, Poovamma was cremated.

After she realised that Poovamma was dead, Bindu not only cleaned the blood in the house, she also changed the matress, bedsheets, floor mat and dumped blood-stained clothes in the laundry basket. She also tried to destroy the evidence.

Initially, no one in the family had any suspicion about Poovamma’s death as she was suffering from heart disease. But after the funeral rites, suspicions about the death started doing the rounds in the village.

Later on, the family members raised suspicion over Poovamma’s death and Prasanna too had doubts after observing the place where the incident took place. There were blood stains on the pillow cover and on the clothes, and some scars on Bindu’s face. He also noticed changes in Bindu’s behaviour.

On April 28, Prasanna lodged a complaint at the Madikeri Rural police station expressing suspicion over his mother’s death. A case was registered under several IPC Sections and Bindu was arrested. The police produced the accused before a court which remanded her to judicial custody.