Telangana murder: A mother, a daughter, a shared lover — and Meghalaya honeymoon-inspired killing

Dubai: In a story that reads like a true-crime thriller, police in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have uncovered a gruesome plot involving a love triangle, a botched honeymoon-style murder plan, and a woman who lived with her in-laws even after orchestrating her husband’s killing.

The victim: Tejeswar, a 25-year-old land surveyor and dance teacher, who had been married for barely a month.

The accused: His wife Aishwarya, her lover Tirumal Rao and a cast of conspirators that includes her own mother Sujatha.

But what makes the crime even more macabre, according to an NDTV report, is the chilling inspiration the killers allegedly drew from a murder in Meghalaya — the infamous Raja Raghuvanshi case, where a man was murdered on a honeymoon trip and his wife disappeared, only to be later revealed as the mastermind.

A honeymoon horror that sparked a deadly idea

According to Gadwal district police chief T. Srinivasa Rao, Aishwarya and her lover, a bank officer named Tirumal Rao, had openly discussed mimicking the Raghuvanshi killing.

Their original idea was chilling in its simplicity: Lure Tejeswar out on a bike ride, have him ambushed by hired killers, and make Aishwarya “disappear” with her lover. The aim was to fool the police into thinking it was a kidnapping-gone-wrong, according to the NDTV report.

But they changed tack — though not out of conscience. It was merely the first of several dark blueprints the duo explored before finally settling on a plan that involved GPS tracking, multiple failed attempts, and finally, murder by deceit.

A mother, a daughter, a shared lover

The bizarre story doesn’t end with Aishwarya and Rao. Police discovered that the bank officer had simultaneous affairs with both mother and daughter. Sujatha, a sweeper at the bank, had first met Rao during her shifts.

But when she went on leave, Aishwarya began working in her place — and began an affair with him too.

When Sujatha found out, she was furious. She pressured her daughter to cut ties with Rao and arranged her marriage to Tejeswar. But Aishwarya had other plans. She briefly went missing before the wedding, returning to claim she had stayed away because her mother couldn’t afford dowry — a lie to gain sympathy. Tejeswar’s family had their doubts but ultimately allowed the marriage to go ahead on May 18.

Just a few weeks later, he would be dead.

Phones, GPS, and a chilling execution

From February to June, Aishwarya and Rao were practically inseparable — at least on the phone. Investigators found over 2,000 calls exchanged between them, including calls during the wedding itself.

To track her husband’s movements, Aishwarya even had her neighbour install a GPS device on his bike.

Rao, police said, outsourced the murder to three men who had come to him seeking loans. Instead of paperwork, they got a contract killing assignment — with the promise of cash and cleared debts.

On the day of the murder, the killers lured Tejeswar under the pretext of surveying a land parcel. CCTV footage showed him getting into a car, sitting innocently beside the driver. Once they reached a remote spot, they slit his throat and stabbed him in the stomach.

Then came the final proof: They video-called Rao and showed him the body. The original plan was to bury the corpse on-site, but fearing witnesses, they dumped it in a nearby canal — one that tragically had too little water to conceal a body.

The body, the tattoo, and a family’s grief

On June 18, Tejeswar was reported missing by his family in Gadwal. Two days later, police in Andhra Pradesh’s Nandyal district found a rotting corpse in a field. Only a tattoo on his arm — “Amma” (mother) in Telugu — allowed them to confirm the identity.

Behind the scenes, Aishwarya calmly stayed on at her in-laws’ house, pretending to grieve, hoping that the body would remain undiscovered and the story would end as a “missing person” case.

She didn’t expect that police from two states would collaborate and quickly zero in on her and Rao. Their escape plan — which included Rs200,000 in funds and tickets to flee to Ladakh — never materialised.

The fall of the conspirators

Police arrested eight people in connection with the murder, including Aishwarya, Rao, Sujatha, and the hired killers.

According to investigators, there were at least five failed attempts to murder Tejeswar before they succeeded.

Even Rao’s father — a retired police officer — allegedly tried to protect his son but couldn’t shield him from the law.

What began as a love affair in a bank turned into a tangled web of betrayal, manipulation and death.

In the end, it wasn’t just Tejeswar’s body that was left in a canal — it was the remains of any illusion of love or loyalty in a case that stunned even hardened investigators.