Mahalaxmi was killed on the intervening night of September 2 and 3.
If I had not killed her, Mahalaxmi would have killed me - read a chilling note written by a man who killed his partner and chopped up her body into pieces before dying by suicide last month.
Mahalaxmi was last seen at her workplace in Bengaluru on September 1, the same day her team head and boyfriend Mukti Ranjan Roy was last seen. Weeks later, neighbours reported a foul smell coming from her house and informed her relatives.
When the 29-year-old's mother reached the house on September 21, she didn't find her daughter but chopped-up body parts stuffed in her fridge and blood inside her washroom instead. The police said Mahalaxmi's boyfriend cut her body into more than 50 pieces after killing her.
Police traced Roy's location to Odisha's Bhadrak. But it was too late by the time they reached him. Before police could catch him, he killed himself. Near his body, they found the suicide note which contained shocking details of his relationship with Mahalaxmi and his confession.
He, in the note, admitted to strangling her on the intervening night of September 2 and 3. He bought a sharp weapon from the market the next morning, cut her body into pieces in the washroom and stuffed the parts in the fridge. Roy then cleaned the washroom with acid before fleeing to Odisha with his younger brother, it read.
The note also claimed that Mahalaxmi wanted to kill him and even bought a black suitcase to dispose of his body. Incidentally, a black suitcase was found near the fridge inside Mahalaxmi's house.
"Her intention was to cut my body into pieces, put them in the suitcase and throw them away after killing me. If I had not killed her, Mahalaxmi would have killed me and dumped my body. I killed her in self-defence," the note read.
According to Mukti Ranjan Roy's suicide note, Mahalaxmi was pressuring him for marriage.
In the note, he alleged that Mahalaxmi used to "beat me up" when he failed to fulfil her demands.
"Mahalaxmi's demand was continuously increasing, even though I had given her a gold chain and Rs 7 lakh. She also beats me up," it read.
Mahalaxmi, who was from Tripura, worked at a popular mall in Bengaluru. The police investigation revealed that she was already married and had a child, but lived separately.
The police have said they will soon file a chargesheet in the case. "We will soon file the Chargesheet as we have now got the translation of his suicide note and his postmortem report from the Odisha Police," said B Dyananad, the commissioner of Bengaluru Police.
The weapon that Roy used to cut her body has not been traced so far but a woman who runs a small shop of cutters used for domestic purposes at Vyalikaval market in Bengaluru identified him when his photo was shown to her, the police said.
Other than the brutal nature of it, the incident grabbed headlines because of its similarities with the infamous Shraddha Walkar murder case.
Walkar, 27, was allegedly killed by her live-in partner Aaftab Amin Poonawala, 29. The accused had cut her body into 35 pieces and put them into a fridge before dumping them in a forested area in Delhi's Chhatarpur in 2022.