Bengaluru horror: Intoxicated civil engineer dies in sleep after spouse hits him with wooden stick; cities self-defence | Bengaluru News

BENGALURU: A 42-year-old civil engineer from Suddaguntepalya in south Bengaluru died in his sleep after a domestic altercation with his wife. She told police that she had hit him with wooden stick in self-defence during a violent episode of abuse.The deceased, Bhaskar, was allegedly intoxicated when he returned home to Bhavani Nagar around midnight on June 27. According to police, he had been living away from his family for two months, staying at the home of a domestic help with whom he was reportedly having an affair. The same night, he came home to collect his SUV when he met his wife, 33-year-old Shruthi.When Shruthi saw the state he was in, heavily drunk and unsteady, she tried to stop him from leaving, fearing for his safety, police said. She asked him to leave in the morning. But the discussion quickly escalated, when Bhaskar allegedly turned violent and assaulted her.Trying to defend herself, Shruthi struck him with a wooden stick typically used to make ragi mudde, after he tried to kick her and their daughters out of the house. She later bathed him, helped him lie down, and assumed he had fallen asleep. But when the girls tried to wake him up the next morning, there was no response.Shruthi, alarmed, checked on him and found him unresponsive. She initially told police that he had slipped and fallen in the bathroom the previous night. But investigators were unconvinced and sent the body for postmortem. The report revealed blunt-force trauma to the ribs, leading to death due to internal injuries and shock.Shruthi, under interrogation, eventually admitted to having hit Bhaskar during the argument, insisting she did not intend to kill him but acted out of fear and anger after enduring years of neglect and abuse.Bhaskar’s family background revealed no close kin. His parents were dead and he had no siblings. Shruthi was his wife from second marriage. He had divorced his first wife after two months of marriage. The couple lived off the rent from a building he owned, which fetched Rs 1.5 lakh a month. Despite this, Shruthi told police that Bhaskar gave her only Rs 5,000 for household expenses while spending most of his time and resources on alcohol and his affair.Shruthi has been remanded to judicial custody on charges of murder. However, police said they are taking into account her claims of self-defence and the prolonged domestic strife. The daughters are currently in the care of their maternal grandmother and the family has been advised to use the rental income from Bhaskar’s property for the girls’ upkeep and future education.