The wife of a youth wing leader of Anekal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was found murdered in their house in Venkateshpura in the town on Tuesday afternoon.

Police said that though her gold jewellery had been found missing, nothing else was apparently taken away from the house.

Shubha (25), wife of Vishwanath V, a real estate agent and BJP leader, was found murdered with her throat slit and multiple stab injuries. Her husband returned home for lunch to find her lying in a pool of blood.

Police said that the murder had occurred between 9.30 am and 12.05 pm. The father of Vishwanath too left home at 9 am along with Vishwanath. Shubha's father-in-law looks after a hardware shop. Vishwanath's office is located two kilometer from their house. The  couple has a four-year-old child, Gautham V, who left for school at 9.30 am.

Since there was renovation work under way at the two-storeyed house, painters and masons were frequenting the place. Police said that the house is flanked by two vacant plots, and the neighbours would not have noticed or heard any sound.

Police refused to name the workers, as they were suspects.

"According to one of the painters, he reached the house for work at 10.15 am. Shubha offered him water and asked him to leave, stating that there was no need for them to work today," said HS Venkatesh, inspector (Anekal Town).

At 12.05 pm, Vishwanath returned home to find the front door closed, but not locked.

Police said that when he stepped inside,  he saw Shubha's body lying in front of a bedroom, 50 meters away from the front door.

"She had 11 stab injuries and her throat had been slit. The stab wounds indicate that the assailants were professionals. The gold jewellery she was wearing, including bangles, earrings and a chain, has been found missing. The house has not been ransacked and nothing else was found missing," said the inspector.

Police, however, said that they do not suspect the husband. "Though there are no real signs of business or political rivalry, we have not ruled it out. We have not even ruled out murder for gain. We also suspect the painters and masons and they are being interrogated," said Venkatesh.

The postmortem examination was carried out at Anekal government hospital on Tuesday.

Soumya Menon/ DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication