Night of horror before mutton soup gave away murder plot

HYDERABAD: It was a night of horror when the crime of passion unfolded in

Nagarkurnool

in which accused Swati and her lover Rajesh were caught in a tussle before the brutal murder.

Police found during Rajesh's interrogation that the duo first tried to kill Swati's husband Sudhakar Reddy, but failed and shifted him to hospital. After he was discharged, they snuffed out his life in a few hours, but not before an argument. Swati finally forced Rajesh to eliminate him, handing out a traumatic death to her husband.

After they drugged and hammered Sudhakar, Swati inflicted burns on Rajesh's face to swap identity of her husband with Rajesh. The drama was exposed after Sudhakar's parents bust the plot when they found her son was not consuming his favourite mutton soup. And found the man on hospital bed was Rajesh, a vegetarian.

On Friday, police produced the two accused, Swati, 27, and her lover

Ajjakolu Rajesh

, 24, a physiotherapist in a local court. The court remanded the duo to judicial custody. Nagarkurnool booked the two accused for criminal conspiracy, murder and causing disappearance of evidence based on a complaint by the victim Sudhakar's brother, Manda Surender Reddy, resident of Old Alawal in Hyderabad.

Police took Rajesh to the crime scene and also to the place where the Sudhakar's body was dumped and recovered a syringe, iron rod, pestle, crow bar and chunni used in the murder. Speaking to TOI, Nagarkurnool deputy superintendent of police Lakshmi Narayana said, "Rajesh and Swati had an affair for two years and Rajesh would often visit Swati's home in the absence of her husband. They would speak on phone at least five times a day. Sudhakar was busy with business and had little time for his wife. She plotted to eliminate him and sent her two children to her parents' house in

Telkapally

, days before the murder. On November 26, night after Sudhakar came home, Rajesh who was hiding in the house hit him with a rod. Sudhakar fell unconscious. When he awoke, she made him believe he fell from bed in an inebriated condition."

Swati called Sudhakar's relative Aravind Reddy home and shifted him to hospital. After treatment, he was brought back home.

"On November 27 around 5.30am Swati woke up Aravind and sent him away. Then, she texted Rajesh to come home. Rajesh gave an anaesthetic injection to Sudhakar and the duo hit his head with a pestle. They also smothered him with a pillow. Later, they covered the body in a bedsheet and shifted it. They poured petrol and burnt it. They dragged skeletal remains to bushes. Once home, Rajesh sprayed petrol on face and burnt himself with Swati's help," said DSP Lakshmi Narayana.


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