Solving Crime | How murder mystery of Mysuru diwan’s granddaughter unravelled after 3 years — at a liquor shop

Solving Crime | How murder mystery of Mysuru diwan’s granddaughter unravelled after 3 years — at a liquor shop


Shakereh Namazie, or Shakereh Khaleeli, was the granddaughter of Sir Mirza Ismail, one of the visionary diwans of the erstwhile Mysuru kingdom. On May 28,1991, she went missing but police took three years to find out that she had been buried alive by none other than her second husband, Swami Shraddhananda alias Murali Manohar Mishra, in one of the most sensational murders in Bengaluru. What no one expected was that police would solve the crime over drinks at a countrymade liquor shop.

Who was Shakereh Namazie?

Born in 1947, Shakereh hailed from one of the well-known families of south India. She was the daughter of Gulam Hussain Namazie and Gauhar Taj Begum Namazie, an Indo-Persian Muslim couple. Taj Begum was the youngest daughter of Sir Mirza Ismail.

An elegant singer, Shakereh was married in 1965, at the age of 18, to her first cousin Akbar Mirza Khaleeli, who was an Indian diplomat. An ambitious Shakereh got into the real estate business but felt abandoned as her husband was always abroad on various assignments.

Mother of Khaleeli’s four daughters, Shakereh came across Murali Mishra, who had renamed himself as Swami Shraddhananda in 1982. Impressed by his spiritual life and spurred by her desire to have a son, Shakereh divorced her husband in 1986 and married Shraddhananda, defying her family and social norms. While she continued to live in Bengaluru, little did she know that her new husband had different plans as she had a lot of property and money in her name. They lived at #81, Richmond Road, at the heart of Bengaluru.

Shakereh goes missing

While Shakereh usually called her children every day, her second daughter Sabah did not get her mother’s call after May 28, 1991. Whenever asked about Shakereh’s whereabouts, Shraddhananda avoided giving Sabah a proper answer but said that she had gone to London for some treatment.

After realising that it was not true, Sabah filed a habeas corpus petition in 1992 for her missing mother. Retired police officer B B Ashok Kumar, who then lived close to Shakereh’s house, recalled that though they suspected Shraddhananda, there was no evidence against him. During questioning, he maintained consistency in his statements. The biggest challenge faced by police was that there was no clue even about her body, according to Kumar.

The breakthrough

With the case not going any further and bringing embarrassment to the state government, the Central Crime Branch, a special wing of the Bengaluru police, was entrusted with the investigation. Then city police commissioner P Kodanda Ramaiah monitored the investigation into the high-profile case. Several rounds of interrogations of Shraddhananda and Shakereh’s family members had proved futile. In March 1994, police constable Mahadevaiah got close to Raju, a servant who worked in Shraddhananda’s home, by supplying him arrack. After some days, Raju told Mahadevaiah at a countrymade liquor shop that Shakereh had been buried alive by Shraddhananda. The three-year wait ended with police picking up Shraddhananda. As investigations progressed, police unearthed spine-chilling details of the crime.

The murder and the motive

Once they arrested Shraddhananda on the basis of Raju’s inputs, police discovered that Shakereh had sought Shraddhananda’s help to resolve some property issues, came to Bengaluru from Delhi and settled there. Their relationship grew and culminated in marriage. By the end of 1987, Shraddhananda managed to obtain a power of attorney over Shakereh’s property. For him, their marriage was merely a convenient means to acquire her property worth hundreds of crores of rupees.

However, Shraddhananda became increasingly infuriated by Shakereh’s continued proximity to her daughters and mother, as he perceived it as a threat to his plans. He thus decided to eliminate her. He deceptively acquired a wooden casket saying that it would be used to safely store antiques and ornaments. He hired labourers to dig a “tank pit” in the courtyard behind their bedroom.

On May 28, 1991, Shraddhananda laced Shakereh’s morning tea with sleeping pills. After she became unconscious, he placed her inside the casket and buried her alive in their backyard. It was so well-planned that Shraddhananda had fitted the wooden casket with wheels so that it could be easily dumped into the “tank pit,” which was also covered. Shraddhananda later hosted drinking and dancing parties at the backyard where Shakereh was buried alive.

The sentence and court proceedings

Police filed a chargesheet in the case and C V Nagesh appeared for the prosecution. Civil and sessions judge B S Totad sentenced Shraddhananda to capital punishment. Though Shraddhananda moved the Karnataka High Court, the sentence was upheld. He appealed against it in the Supreme Court, which commuted his death sentence to imprisonment till death in 2008 in a rare judgment.

The Supreme Court said in its order, “Death to a cold blooded murderer or life, albeit subject to severe restrictions of personal liberty, is the vexed question that once again arises before this court. A verdict of death would cut the matter cleanly, apart from cutting short the life of the condemned person. But a verdict of imprisonment for life is likely to give rise to certain questions. (Life after all is full of questions!) How would the sentence of imprisonment for life work out in actuality? The court may feel that the punishment more just and proper, in the facts of the case, would be imprisonment for life with life given its normal meaning and as defined in section 45 (The word “life” denotes the life of a human being, unless the contrary appears from the context) of the Indian Penal Code.

“In light of the discussions made above, we are clearly of the view that there is a good and strong basis for the court to substitute a death sentence by life imprisonment or by a term in excess of fourteen years and further to direct that the convict must not be released from the prison for the rest of his life or for the actual term as specified in the order, as the case may be,” the order said.

Shraddhananda, now 84, is lodged in Sagar Central Prison, Madhya Pradesh. In 2022, he approached the Supreme Court to release him seeking parity with Rajiv Gandhi assassination convicts who were released. He said he had already spent 29 years in jail.

In Dancing on The Grave, a recent documentary featuring the crime, Shraddhananda said he was innocent. He claimed that Shakereh died due to illness and that he buried her body and remained silent for fear of getting beaten up by her relatives. He also said he knew that her death would come to light some day.