Bengaluru, 21 Sept

A 29-year-old woman's dismembered body was found in a house in Malleswaram here, police sources said on Saturday. According to police, Mahalakshmi's body, cut into over 30 pieces, was stuffed in a refrigerator.

Senior police officers reached the spot and barricaded the road leading to the building where the body was found in a single bedroom house, where the victim was staying alone. Police suspect it to be a case of murder, which took place about a week ago. An investigation has been launched into the case.

Additional Commissioner of Police (West Zone) N Satheesh Kumar said, "A woman's body was found chopped into pieces and stored in a fridge at a house within the Vyalikaval police station limits. It appeared to have been done 4-5 days ago."

He said the dog squad and the forensic experts too visited the spot and started the investigation. "The body has been identified. The probe is going on. We will give more information after the investigation. She was settled in Karnataka but is originally from another state," Kumar told reporters.

It is learnt that the woman was living separately from her husband. While Mahalakshmi lived in Malleswaram and was working in a mall, her husband worked in a hermitage away from the city. After learning about the incident, he too came to the spot.

The incident was a stark reminder of the brutal murder of Shraddha Walker by her live-in partner Aftab Poonawalla on 18 May, 2022 at Mehrauli in Delhi.

Twenty-eight-year-old Poonawala allegedly strangled Walkar and sawed her body into 35 pieces which he kept in a 300-litre fridge for almost three weeks at his residence before dumping them across the city.