Mother-son duo arrested in murder-for-gain case in Gannavaram

Vijayawada: The Gannavaram police on Friday arrested two people in connection with a murder for gain case involving the killing of a 55-year-old woman at her residence in Davajigudem in Gannavaram on the night of May 24. The arrested were identified as Polavarapu Sushma (45) and her son Polavarapu Ajay Kumar (25), residents of Srinagar Colony in Gannavaram. Police recovered about 390 grams of gold, Rs 1.6 lakh in cash and a Suzuki Access scooter allegedly used in the offence. The recovered items totalled Rs 56 lakh, police said.Disclosing the case details to the media on Friday, Krishna district superintendent of police (SP) V Vidyasagar Naidu said that the prime accused, Sushma, was allegedly facing financial difficulties and believed that the victim was an obstacle to her extramarital relationship. Driven by greed for the victim’s gold and cash, she allegedly conspired to commit the murder with the assistance of her son.“Based on the CCTV footage analysis, the two accused entered the victim Kaja Rajitha Kumari’s flat, who had been residing alone in her flat at GKR Paradise, at around 10.07 pm and left at about 11.17 pm on the night of the incident. And killed the victim and fled from the spot with gold and cash,” the SP said.The victim, Rajitha Kumari, was speaking with one of her daughters over the phone on the night of May 24 when she mentioned that someone had rung the doorbell. After disconnecting the call, she failed to respond to further calls. The following morning, her domestic helper found her dead under suspicious circumstances in her bedroom and alerted the police through the emergency helpline.Police initially registered a suspicious death case and launched an investigation. Based on the evidence, the police later altered the case to murder for gain and formed special teams to trace the suspects. Acting on credible information, police apprehended the accused near Konayya Cheruvu in Gannavaram.Police also revealed that Ajay Kumar has a criminal background, with several cases registered against him and a suspect sheet maintained at Vuyyurur Town police station. On the occasion, the SP commended the special investigation team led by In-charge DSP Pal Srinivas and Gannavaram Circle Inspector L Ramesh for swiftly solving the case.