HYDERABAD: In a case that is similar to the honeymoon murder in Meghalaya, a 32-year-old private land surveyor from Gadwal was murdered by killers allegedly hired by his wife's lover. The couple had married a month earlier against the wishes of the victim's parents.
Police officers have taken four suspects, including the three hired killers and the victim's wife, into custody. A manhunt has been launched to nab the absconding main accused, who is believed to be the wife's lover. The investigators, however, are yet to establish the motive behind the brutal murder.
The victim, G Tejeshwar from Rajaveedhi in Gadwal town, married T Sahasra alias Ishwarya, 25, from Kallur in Kurnool of Andhra Pradesh at the Anjaneya temple in Beechupalli on May 17.
Tejeshwar's marriage was originally scheduled for Feb 13, with Ishwarya, but a few days before the wedding, she left her home without informing her family. Ishwarya returned on Feb 16, but Tejeshwar's family called off the wedding, upset with her sudden disappearance.
However, Ishwarya got in touch with Tejeshwar, claiming that she felt bad as her mother, Sujatha, was struggling to arrange money for the wedding and that she had been living with her relatives all this while.
"Tejeshwar believed her story and, against the advice of his family, married Ishwarya on May 18. His family also attended the wedding reluctantly. But differences apparently cropped up between the couple days after the wedding. Tejeshwar was unhappy with Ishwarya constantly talking to a stranger on the phone," a senior police officer from Gadwal said.
On the evening of June 17, Tejeshwar got into a car in Gadwal and did not return home. The next day, the Gadwal town police registered a missing case on a complaint by Tejeshwar's brother, Tejvardhan.
"We verified CCTV footage at different places and found that Tejeshwar got into a car on June 17. Our teams located the decomposed body in the HNSS Canal in Sugalimetta under the Panyam police station limits of Nandyal district (AP) on June 21. Family members of the victim identified the body," Gadwal superintendent of police T Srinivasa Rao said.
Based on the registration details of the car that the victim got into before his death, police officials picked up three suspects - Nagesh, Parashuram, and Raju, all residents of Kurnool. The trio confessed that they approached Thirumala Rao, manager of a Kurnool-based NBFC, for loans.
"The three said Thirumala Rao convinced them to kill Tejeshwar. On June 17, they picked up Tejeshwar from Gadwal on the pretext of carrying out a land survey at Yerravalli in Gadwal. They killed him by slitting his throat in the car," a Gadwal police officer said.
After committing the murder, the accused met Thirumala Rao in Panyam and showed him the body. He paid 2 lakh to the trio. They initially thought of burying the body in Thirumala Rao's land in Panyam but later decided against it and dumped it in the canal. The Gadwal police recovered the Swift Dzire used in the offence from Panyam. Ishwarya has also been taken into custody.
According to police, Thirumala Rao, who is married, was initially in a relationship with Ishwarya's mother Sujatha, who worked as a sweeper at the NBFC. "In Sujatha's absence, Ishwarya did the cleaning work, and Thirumala Rao, who is in late 30s, befriended her too. Ishwarya was aware of the murder conspiracy and even shared her husband's location with the prime accused," police said.