A Bengaluru software professional was murdered allegedly by her husband, and her body was dumped and burned in a forest area in Tamil Nadu by his aide. The incident came to light recently, after the techie’s mother filed a police complaint, and the husband was grilled.

Akshatha (30), a techie who was in between jobs, was married to Chandrakanth (40), who owns the New Silver Spoon Bar and Restaurant in Bengaluru. The couple have been married for 11 years, and have one child.

On January 22, Akshatha’s mother Rekha had come to Chandrakanth’s bar to enquire about her daughter’s whereabouts, as she hadn’t heard from her in over two weeks. At this point, Chandrakanth reportedly told her that Akshatha had left for Delhi after taking Rs 50,000 from him, and that she was now refusing to pick up phone calls.

Still unable to reach her daughter, and suspicious about Chandrakanth’s explanation, Rekha filed a missing persons police complaint.

A few days later, the police grilled Chandrakanth, and he reportedly revealed that he had strangulated Akshatha to death on January 6. “When he was grilled, he revealed that he had smothered Akshatha in his flat, and then asked his employee (Rajender) Singh to dispose of the body. Singh had loaded the body in a car late at night and took it to a forest at Kamanadoddi village near Hosur on the Tamil Nadu border, and set it on fire,” a senior police officer told TNIE.

“He then left the city for his native Delhi and carried Akshatha’s mobile phone along with him. But he was not answering the phone calls,” the officer added.

According to reports, Chandrakanth killed his wife as he suspected that she was cheating on him.