Death for driver in Swapna murder: Court cites 33 clues, including victim’s hair in car

Hyderabad: The recent conviction of three accused in the 2023 murder of a speech-impaired woman, P Swapna, in Kamareddy was backed by 33 pieces of evidence, the judgment copy revealed. Among the key forensic findings were 10 strands of Swapna's hair recovered from a car used to transport her body.Other scientific and circumstantial evidence relied upon by the court included a rented car used to ferry the victims, bloodstains found inside the vehicle and Swapna's clothes, which were dumped at Daggi village in an attempt to destroy evidence. Investigators established that the accused transported her body for nearly 80 km before disposing of it.
Swapna, 20, was among six members of a family killed over a property dispute within a span of 16 days in Dec 2023. She was strangled and her body set ablaze on the outskirts of Bhoompally village on Dec 14. The other victims included twin minor girls, who were killed separately, with bodies recovered from different locations across neighbouring districts. Trials in those cases are continuing in courts across different districts in Telangana.Following the trial in Swapna's case, the principal sessions judge of a court in Kamareddy sentenced key accused Medidha Prashanth (29) to death, while co-accused G Vishnu (20), a painter, and Medidha Oddemma (52), a labourer, were awarded life imprisonment. Police had named five accused, including two juveniles whose cases are being heard by the Juvenile Justice Board.According to the verdict, the murders stemmed from a property dispute. Prashanth allegedly conspired to eliminate his friend Puna Prasad after securing transfer of land without payment. When Prasad later demanded settlement, the accused lured him with alcohol, attacked him with a stone, slit his throat and buried the body in a forest. Swapna was Prasad's sister.To prevent any claim over the property, the accused allegedly decided to eliminate other family members — Prasad's wife Sanvika, sister Sravani, and twin daughters Chaitrika and Chaitrik. Investigators said the victims were picked up in a car one by one on the pretext of meeting Prasad. They were misled into believing he had been detained by police and wanted to see them.The killings came to light after Prasad's disappearance prompted a wider probe ordered by the then district police chief, eventually exposing one of the most gruesome murder cases in recent years. Then superintendent of police Sindhu Sharma supervised the investigation until the chargesheet was filed.