Telugu Man Arrested in US for Killing His Wife, Eight Months After Her Murder

Hyderabad:A Telugu man has been arrested in the US state of Washington on charges of murdering his wife, nearly eight months after she was found dead in the bathroom of their apartment in Bellevue.

The accused, 30-year-old Avinash Narne, was arrested by the Bellevue police on June 27 and has since been charged with first-degree murder in the death of his 27-year-old wife Sabbineni Rajitha. He is being held in the King county jail on bail set at $5 million (more than `47 crore).

According to investigators, Rajitha was found unresponsive inside the locked bathroom of the couple's apartment at Woodland Commons in downtown Bellevue on October 27, 2025. “Despite lifesaving attempts from the Bellevue fire department, the individual was pronounced dead at the scene”, Bellevue police said.

Avinash told officers that he returned home from work and found his wife lying on the bathroom floor. According to the court documents, the couple had married in June of 2025 through an arranged marriage and had moved into the apartment shortly afterwards.

Initially treated as a suspicious death, the case was later upgraded to a homicide after the King county medical examiner concluded that the woman had died from strangulation.

During the months-long investigation, detectives examined electronic door lock records, mobile phone data and WhatsApp messages. According to court documents, investigators found no evidence that anyone other than Avinash entered the apartment around the time of Rajitha’s death.

Police also alleged that Avinash, while being married, had been involved in a secret romantic relationship with another woman from India.

Court documents also described messages between Rajitha and Avinash, where she complained multiple times about her drinks tasting bitter. According to the officials, on the day she died, she told the husband a smoothie he made tasted like “medicine” and “cough syrup.”

Investigators claimed that Avinash made statements during interviews that only someone present at the scene would have known, including mentioning a photograph of his wife's body that had been deleted from a mobile phone. These details, along with digital evidence collected during the investigation, led detectives to identify him as the prime suspect.

He was taken into custody following a follow-up interview with detectives and was formally charged in court this month. If convicted, he could face a lengthy prison sentence under Washington state law.