India: 45-year-old government officer who took on mining mafia found dead with throat slit

A 45-year-old woman, who was working as a senior geologist with the Department of Mines and Geology and had recently cracked down on illegal mining and sand mafia, was found dead with her throat slit in the Gokula Badavane area of Bengaluru on Sunday morning, officials said.

According to the police, the deceased has been identified as Prathima, a Deputy Director of the Mines and Geosciences Department.

The murder came to light when the brother of the deceased called her and when he got no response he went to her house and found her dead with her throat slit. Giving details, South Division DCP Rahul Kumar Shahpurwad said that the deceased was first suffocated and then strangled to death.

"Pratima came home at 8 p.m on Saturday. She was first suffocated and then strangled to death. She lived alone for the past five years. No trace of robbery has been found on the spot. Three teams of police have been constituted for the investigation," DCP Rahul said.

"Pratima's body has been sent to Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) hospital, Bangalore for postmortem," he added.

The police said they were probing multiple angles, including reports of her action against illegal mining as well as a suspected family dispute. The cops said they were also looking at the possibility of someone close to her being involved as there were no signs of forced entry into her flat.

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