Bengaluru: Too much of FB and Instagram, man kills wife and 3-month old son

Bengaluru, Jan 31, 2019: Facebook brought them together. A year and a baby later, the social networking site turned the trigger for a grisly end to the tale, reported Deccan Herald.

On January 19, Sushma and her baby boy were killed in cold blood by her Facebook friend-turned-husband S K Raju, just three months after the couple started living together with their love child.

The reason: Sushma led a colourful social media life. She was active on Facebook and Instagram, chatting with unknown men. Raju suspected she was having multiple affairs.

On January 19 evening, the Reliance warehouse employee who was living with Sushma and their three-month-old baby in a rented house at Madanayakanahalli, planned a bike trip to Hassan.

After reaching Mysuru Road, he took a deviation inside Hejjala forest near Kumbalagodu, saying it was a short-cut to Wonderla which they were going to visit. He stopped at an isolated place, assaulted Sushma and bludgeoned her to death. He then smothered the baby and set the bodies on fire with petrol from the bike.

Incidentally, the spot was just a few kilometres away from Eagleton resort in Bidadi where a political drama was playing out at the time.

The next day, a forest guard on his rounds noticed the half-burnt body of a woman in Hejjala plantation and alerted the jurisdictional Bidadi police, who in turn were busy with the assault case involving Congress MLAs Anand Singh and J N Ganesh.

The Bidadi police rushed to the spot and did a mahazar of the spot.

Later, upon checking complaints about missing people in the city, they learnt that Sushma’s father had filed a complaint about his daughter and infant before Madanayakanahalli police on January 26. He was called to the station and shown the belongings and photographs of Sushma. He confirmed it was his daughter.

Bidadi police inspector K Jeevan and sub-inspector B C Harish picked up Raju and during interrogation, he confessed to killing Sushma and the baby. He told police Sushma was chatting with other men on Facebook and took no interest in domestic chores or taking care of the child.

He was arrested and remanded in judicial custody.

The police haven’t found the infant’s body. They suspect some wild animals would have consumed the remains. The area is said to have a considerable population of leopards.

Sushma, a native of Tumakuru, had come in contact with Raju after he sent her a friend request on Facebook. The chats soon gave way to a physical relationship after which she got pregnant. After she gave birth, the couple started living together upon parents’ insistence.