In a crime plot straight out of a film, a woman murdered her husband and then disfigured her partner to pass him off as her hubby, in order to take possession of the husband’s assets. Nagarkurnool police arrested the woman on Sunday.
The Times of India reported that 27-year-old Swathi, a nurse, along with her partner, Rajesh, a physiotherapist, murdered her husband M Sudhakar Reddy, two weeks ago and dumped his body in a forest area in Mahabubnagar.
Sudhakar Reddy was a resident of Nagarkurnool.
According to the report, Swathi and Rajesh injected Sudhakar with anaesthetic injection at 5am while he was asleep, and later beat him to death with an iron rod.
Nagarkurnool deputy superintendent of police A Lakshmi Narayana told TOI, “Sudhakar Reddy was operating a stone-crushing unit. He married Swathi, a trained nurse, and the couple was blessed with two children. Swathi would go to Rajesh for physiotherapy and later they started having an affair. The duo felt Sudhakar was an obstacle in their relationship and decided to eliminate him. They hatched a conspiracy to ensure Rajesh could take the place of Sudhakar and even take control over properties.”
After returning home, Swathi as per plan smeared acid on Rajesh’s face to disfigure him. Later, she called her relatives and told them that some unidentified persons entered and threw petrol on her husband.
Rajesh, who was pretending as Sudhakar, was shifted to Apollo Hospital. Sudhakar’s brother lodged a complaint with police on November 28 about the attack on his ‘brother’.
Soon, as the burns started healing, Sudhakar’s family members suspected that the man availing treatment was not Sudhakar. As the suspicion grew, they asked him to identify the family members. Fearing that he would be caught if they recognised his voice, Rajesh continued pretending as Sudhakar and spoke to them only in writing. Their suspicions were confirmed when he couldn’t identify the family members. Subsequently, they filed a complaint with the police and also raised suspicion about Swathi in the whole incident.
Following interrogation, Swathi confessed to the murder and shared information about the crime, including the location where the body was disposed.
Police retrieved the body and handed it over to the family members.
Both Swathi and Rajesh have been booked for murder. While Swathi was arrested on Sunday, Rajesh will be arrested as soon as he is discharged from the hospital.