HYDERABAD: The decomposed body of a 56-year-old housewife, who went missing on April 18 evening after stepping out of her house to visit a temple in her colony in Malkajgiri, was found in the tall grass behind the same temple on Thursday. Cops said that they did not see the body in their initial search of the surroundings and claimed that the criminals might have dumped it behind the temple on Wednesday night.
The victim,
G Uma Devi
(56), was the wife of retired railway employee
GVN Murthy
and lived in Vishnupuri Colony in Malkajgiri. Police found blunt injuries on her head and all her jewellery was missing. She is survived by her husband, a daughter and a son.
On April 18 evening,
Murthy went in search of his wife after she didn’t return from her visit to the Sri Swayambu Siddi Vinayaka temple in their colony.
Enquiry with the priest revealed that she had come to the temple. Murthy also found her footwear at the temple. After searching for her with other relatives at various places, the family finally lodged a missing complaint with Malkajgiri police on April 18 night.
Police verified the CCTV footage from nearby places and
Uma Devi
was seen going towards the temple but nothing after that as there was no camera near the temple.
“Previously our teams had checked the surroundings of the temple and nearby areas thoroughly, but the body was not found. On Thursday, we found the decomposed body,” Malkajgiri inspector
B Jagadeeshwar Rao
said.
Police suspect that the criminals might have dumped the body near the temple on Wednesday night.
After the victim went missing, her family had released a poster mentioning that she was wearing three gold bangles on each hand, gold earrings and mangalsutra.
“All her gold jewellery was missing. It appears to be a case of murder for gain,” Malkajgiri ACP N Shyam Prasad Rao said.
Police shifted the body for post-mortem and altered the missing case to that of murder.