A 54-year-old bank manager was allegedly killed and then thrown off his seventh floor residence by his wife and young son, all in a bid to gain access to his insurance money, according to reports.
Santana Krishnan Sheshadri, a Mumbai City resident, was found dead under his apartment complex at the SIDBI (Small Industries Development Bank of India) officer’s quarters in Andheri on Friday, Feb. 11.
His 52-year-old wife, Jaisheela Sheshadri, and their son, Arvind Sheshadri, a 26-year-old B-Tech graduate, were arrested late Friday night and are now charged with the murder of the financial executive.
Serving his career as an Assistant General Manager at the SIDBI, Santana Krishnan, reportedly took home a salary of Rupees 2 Lakh ($2644 approx.) every month, enough to make a happy living in the cosmopolitan city.
However, during interrogation, his son Arvind told the police that his father had been very secretive about his financial dealings and had also refused to pay for his expenses.
"The victim’s son had enquired with his father several times about his properties and bank balances, as he wanted to shift to New Zealand or Canada for better job prospects and needed money for sustaining there and look for a job, but his father refused to give him money or to reveal anything about his bank balance or property," a local media report quoted a police officer from the Amboli police station as saying.
According to the officer, the mother-son duo had frequent fights with the victim for not taking care of basic house expenses. After one such heated altercation on Thursday night, the mother and son decided to put an end to their ‘suffering’, the officer said.
They wanted the death to look like a suicide as they were hoping to flee with the victim’s savings and life insurance money to Netherlands or Canada, reports said.
"The duo wanted to pass the murder as a suicide since Santana had attempted to kill himself twice before in 2005 and 2011," said the officer.
The accused duo were aware that their neighbours wouldn’t be home on Friday and therefore decided to murder the banker in the wee hours, when he would be asleep.
They allegedly banged his head on the headboard of his bed, strangulated him, then slit his wrist and left him to die on his bed , according to reports.
After an hour when the blood began to spread the duo panicked and threw the body from the window of the seventh floor flat, said the police officer.
"The accused had planned every aspect of the murder. Jaisheela strangulated him, after which her son slit his wrist, to make it look like a suicide. But, they panicked when the blood spread in the entire house. They then decided to throw him off their balcony," Police Inspector Abdul Rauf Shaikh told Mid-Day.
He said a preliminary investigation revealed the death was unnatural as the victim had fallen head down first.
"This is not typically observed in such kind of suicide cases. We then checked the house, and found that attempts had been made to clean the blood smeared on the wall. Seshadri’s blood-stained clothes were hidden in the washing machine. A pillow with blood marks had also been kept in the upper floor," Shaikh added.
Senior Inspector Nilesh Bagul said the duo confessed to the crime after a five-hour long interrogation.
"He regularly demanded dowry. They alleged that Seshadri had kept both of them at a rehabilitation centre and also gave them electric shocks five years ago. Since then, they had wanted to take revenge."
They had even set an alarm to commit the crime at 4 am on Friday, the officer said.
"If we had reached the residence even 30 minutes late, the entire evidence would have been destroyed," Bagul added.
The mother and son remain remanded in police custody as the investigation continues.
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