On January 21, the capital city of Tamil Nadu woke up to news of a gruesome crime. Corporation staff who were leveling waste at the Pallikarnai dumpyard, found to their utter shock, the mangled limbs of a woman in a plastic bag. The police were immediately alerted and investigations were launched to first identify the victim and then nab her murderer. And to the shock of the city’s residents closely following the case, the man behind the brutal crime, was the husband of the woman herself, film director SR Balakrishnan.
Chennai police have now arrested the director for the murder of his 35-year-old wife Sindhu and have produced him before the Alandur court. While two legs and a hand were found at the Pallikarnai dumpyard, another limb has been recovered from the Adyar river bank. The police are currently trying to find the head and torso of the victim at the dumpyard. 10 policemen have been deployed at the site to recover the missing body parts. Multiple excavators are being used to sift through over two weeks’ worth of garbage. During the interrogation, Balakrishnan admitted to making multiple trips to dispose of the body.
“On January 19, he bludgeoned her to death with a hammer and once she was dead, he scraped of skin from the joints before cutting off the limbs. He then put the limbs in different bags,” an investigating official told TNM. “We are still looking for the head and torso. Further investigations will reveal the exact motive of the crime,” he adds.
Police sources further told TNM that Sindhu wanted to be an actor but Balakrishnan was against it. He also suspected that she was having extra marital affairs. Balakrishnan had made a movie called Kadhal Ilavasam in 2015 that had not received a positive response.
When the limbs were found on January 21, the police only had one clue to identify her – a tattoo on her right hand. Following this, they sent out alerts to police stations across the state to find if there was any information on such a woman. Finally, Thoothukudi police confirmed that a missing complaint was filed by Sandhya’s mother.
“When we spoke to the mother she said that she suspected Balakrishnan would have murdered Sandhya,” says the officer. “After killing her, he called her mother and said that she was going abroad for some job to cover his tracks,” the officer alleges.
Source: The News Minute