Hyderabad: New, grisly details have emerged in the sensational murder in which a woman and her lover murdered her husband.
Swathi, who was a nurse, had an affair with Rajesh before she was married to Sudhakar. And they continued with their relationship as Rajesh was working as a physiotherapist in the same hospital. Their bond further strenghtened with Swathi having had to undergo physiotherapy sessions after she had an injury.
After they hatched the plot to kill Sudhakar, Swathi injected her husband with anesthesia. When he fell unconscious, they both hit on his head leading to his death.
Swathi then poured acid on her lover so he had to undergo plastic surgery. They wanted him to look like Sudhakar, whose body they burnt after killing him.
When Rajesh was moved to a corporate hospital in Hyderabad with acid burns, the hospital offered ‘Sudhakar’ a cup of mutton soup as is the practice. Mutton soup is given to patients undergoing treatment for burn injuries.
When ‘Sudhakar’ (Rajesh) refused to have the soup, family members were stunned as the real Sudhakar was actually fond of mutton soup.
“It was then, the family began suspecting him. They asked him to identify the family members. The ‘fake’ Sudhakar refused to open his mouth and conversed with them by writing on his palm”, an official involved in the investigation said. The family lodged a complaint with the police seeking a probe. The cops questioned Swathi, who confessed to having murdered Sudhakar Reddy in a joint operation with Rajesh.
The move was part of a plan to make the latter undergo plastic surgery and take the identity of her husband.
The inspiration allegedly came from a 2014 Telugu thriller “Yevadu” (Who) in which actor Allu Arjun undergoes plastic surgery to take the identity of another actor Ramcharan Teja.
According to the Nagarkurnool police, the crime was committed about a fortnight ago but was brought to their notice now.
Swathi, a house wife from the Nagarkurnool district of Telangana, allegedly conspired with her paramour Rajesh to kill her 32 year old husband Sudhakar Reddy.
The two executed the plan at her home on the night of November 26 when Swathi hit her husband on the head with a blunt object.
As Reddy fell unconscious she called Rajesh to her house.
After killing Reddy the two wrapped him in a mat and drove to Navapet forest under Fatehnagar mandal where they burnt the body and dumped it in a ditch.
Swathi was married to Reddy, a businessman, seven years ago but had developed extra marital relations with Rajesh two years ago, police said.
The couple had two children.
“Swathi developed intimacy with Rajesh when she visited his clinic in Nagarkurnool for the treatment of her back pain,” DSP A Lakshminarayana told Gulf News.
Reddy found out about her illicit relations a few days ago and Swathi had become fearful, the officer said.
Swathi’s plan to bring home Rajesh in place of her husband moved into the next phase.
Two days after the murder, with the willingness of Rajesh, she poured acid on his face and the body to disfigure him before informing Sudhakar Reddy’s parents that their son was injured in an attack by four unknown persons with acid.
Initially she admitted him to a local hospital and later Reddy’s panic-stricken parents shifted him to a private hospital in Hyderabad. Sudhakar’s brother Surender Reddy lodged a complaint with the Nagarkurnool police and an attempt to murder case was booked.
Everything was moving according to Swathi’s plan as her in laws were under the impression that the person under treatment at the hospital was their son Sudhakar.
However the parents and other relatives started developing suspicion about the identity of the man as his behavior and physical appearance was distinctly different from Sudhakar Reddy. “The family alerted us and we started the investigation,” Jogu Chennaiah, Additional SP, Nagarkurnool district, told Gulf News.
The quick thinking cops scanned Rajesh’s finger prints at the hospital and compared it with Reddy’s bio metric details on the basis of his Aadhar card.
The discovery was shocking. “With this simple move we were able to establish the fact that the person in hospital was not Sudhakar Reddy,” said the ASP.
The police immediately took Swathi into custody and during the questioning she broke down and admitted to the murder of her husband.
Based on the information provided by her, they recovered the burnt remnants of the body from the forest area.
Swathi was produced in the court and has been remanded to judicial custody.
The police, who have booked cases for murder and causing the disappearance of evidence under the Indian Penal code, have also made a formal arrest of Rajesh and are waiting for his discharge from the hospital to produce him in the court.
Interesting discovery
Police officials say there was an interesting story behind how the family of Sudhakar Reddy developed suspicion about the identity of the person who was under treatment at the hospital.
"Sudhakar was a non vegetarian who liked mutton soup very much. But when his parents brought the mutton soup to hospital the patient revolted saying he was vegetarian", said a police official explaining how the case was cracked.
Rajesh who was admitted as Sudhakar Reddy was a vegetarian and it became his undoing.
