Bodies of woman and five children found in lake near Vijayapura, woman’s family alleges murder

VIJAYAPURA: The bodies of a woman and her five children were found floating by the edge of the Bhuthnal lake in Vijayapura taluk on Wednesday. The deceased were identified as mother Shobha Jalageri (45), Vidya (16), Suvarna (14), Tipparaya Goudesh (Mooga) (10), Vikas (5) and Sanika (7).

Police and firemen fished out the bodies and sent them for post-mortem examination. It is suspected that they may have committed suicide. The Adarsh Nagar police visited the spot and they felt that the incident could have occurred on Tuesday morning.

Shobha had a quarrel with her husband Malkari Bhimaraya Jalageri at their house at Toravi village in Vijayapura over cooking for Shravana Monday. Angered by this, Shobha said she would commit suicide along with her children and left with her children around 5 am in the morning on August 24. After that, husband Malkari filed a missing complaint at Vijayapura Rural police station. Even after much search, Shobha and children were not found.

On Wednesday, Shobha’s family members alleged that she and her children had been murdered. Shobha’s sister Ashwini claimed that her husband Malkari used to harass her daily.

“He used to assault Shobha every day and my sister has told us about this many times. She has shown marks of assault on body He is the reason for this death. How can she jump into lake taking five children along? He himself might have murdered all the six and then filed a missing complaint. Two days before the incident he had assaulted Shobha”, Ashwini said.