Bengaluru woman murder suspect found hanging in Odisha

The Odisha police on Wednesday found a man, the key suspect in the brutal killing of a woman in Bengaluru, hanging from a tree in Bhadrak district, an officer said.

The police also recovered a diary, believed to be belonging to the deceased man, Mukti Ranjan Ray, in which he confessed to killing the woman whose dismembered body was found in the fridge of her house in the southern metropolis.

Bhadrak SP Varun Guntupalli said Ray (30), a resident of Bhuinpur village under Dhusuri police station, was the prime suspect in the woman's murder.

He was allegedly on the run following the discovery of the body parts of Mahalakshmi, a 29-year-old woman.

Earlier on the day, Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara had said the police had information about the presence of the suspect in Odisha, and teams formed to crack the case had been sent there to nab him.

“We have recovered the body of Mukti Ranjan Ray hanging from a tree. The body was handed over to his family after conducting post-mortem,” Dhusuri Police Station IIC Santanu Jena said.

The SP said the police recovered a diary of Ray in which he confessed that he had dismembered the body of the Bengaluru woman into 59 pieces after killing her.

He had returned to the village from Bengaluru after the murder.

Asked whether the Karnataka police had contacted Bhadrak police, Jena said, “We had received a message, but no representative of the Karnataka police has reached here.”

The maggot-infested body of Mahalakshmi, chopped into several pieces and stuffed into the fridge, was found by her mother and elder sister at her Vyalikaval home on Saturday.

The deceased woman's estranged husband on Sunday expressed suspicion about the involvement of a man known to Mahalakshmi, who had been living alone, in her neighbourhood.