Rich woman dies a poor death

53-yr-old Sheela Reddy, a spinster, died unnoticed due to starvation or ill health five to six months ago. Her body was discovered on Tuesday.

It is not the poor alone who die of hunger. In a shocking case, a rich and well-to-do woman died of starvation in the posh Indira nagar area of Bangalore, leaving the police and neighbours stumped.

What made matters worse and strange is that 53-year-old Sheela Reddy, a spinster, died unnoticed and unreported almost six months ago. When the police came knocking they found that half of her body had been reduced to skeleton and the rest was putrefying.

Sheela lived alone on a l and and house worth a few crores and her neighbours were af flu- ent for mer IAS and IPS of ficers. According to the police, she must have died due to starvation five to six months ago as she was either not interested in eating or had no strength to cook.

Sheela’s relatives live nearby but nobody used to visit her. It was after six months that her brother Shankar Reddy came to find out about her well being. When he did not get any response, he peeped through a window and found the halfskeleton, half putrefying body of his sister.

One of the local police of ficer said “We had to break open the doors and there was heavy stench emanating from the house. The body was in a de- cayed state and only the skeleton of one half of the body remained. Our initial assessment is that she died at least 4-5 months ago.”

According to one of the neighbours, foul smell emanated from the house about four months back. When the police were infor med, they said it may be due to a dead dog.

The police, at that time, was busy with the May assembly elections. Neighbours said Sheela never interacted with anyone and was often seen taking a walk around the house.