In a crime plot straight out of a film, a woman and her boyfriend allegedly murdered her husband and disfigured the boyfriend so that he can impersonate the husband and take possession of his assets. Nagarkurnool police arrested the woman on Sunday, 10 December.
The Times of India reported that 27-year-old Swathi, a nurse, along with her partner, Rajesh, a physiotherapist, allegedly murdered her husband M Sudhakar Reddy, two weeks ago, and dumped his body in a forest area in Mahabubnagar.
Sudhakar Reddy was a resident of Nagarkurnool. According to the report, Swathi and Rajesh injected Sudhakar with anaesthetic injection at 5 am while he was asleep, and later beat him to death with an iron rod.
After returning home, Swathi as per plan smeared acid on Rajesh’s face to disfigure him. Later, she called her relatives and told them that some unidentified persons entered and threw petrol on her husband.
Sudhakar Reddy was operating a stone-crushing unit. He married Swathi, a trained nurse, and the couple was blessed with two children. Swathi would go to Rajesh for physiotherapy and later they started having an affair. The duo felt Sudhakar was an obstacle in their relationship and decided to eliminate him. They hatched a conspiracy to ensure Rajesh could take the place of Sudhakar and even take control over properties.A Lakshmi Narayana, deputy superintendent of police, Nagarkurnool, to TOI
Rajesh, who was pretending as Sudhakar, was shifted to Apollo Hospital. Sudhakar’s brother lodged a complaint with police on 28 November about the attack on his ‘brother’.
Soon, as the burns started healing, Sudhakar’s family members suspected that the man availing treatment was not Sudhakar. As the suspicion grew, they asked him to identify the family members.
Fearing that he would be caught if they recognised his voice, Rajesh continued pretending as Sudhakar and spoke to them only in writing. Reddy’s relatives got suspicious when he refused to have mutton soup served to patients with burn injuries. They were shocked when he told the hospital staff that he is a vegetarian as the ‘real’ Reddy used to take non-vegetarian food. Their suspicions were confirmed when he couldn’t identify the family members.
Subsequently, they filed a complaint with the police and also raised suspicion about Swathi in the whole incident. Following interrogation, Swathi confessed about the murder and shared all information about the crime including the location where the body was disposed.
Police retrieved the body and handed it over to the family members. Both Swathi and Rajesh have been booked for murder.
While Swathi was arrested on 10 December, Rajesh will be arrested as soon as he is discharged from the hospital.
(This story was originally published on The Newsminute and has been republished with permission.)
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