TIRUPATI: Tirupati police have solved the mystery of a woman who had gone missing five months ago. They arrested her husband, a software engineer. He is accused of killing her, packed her body in a gunny bag, and later dumped it in a tank near Tirupati.
Disclosing case details to media persons here on Tuesday, East division DSP Murali Krishna explained that M. Padmavathi had got married to K. Venugopal of Satyanarayanapuram in 2019. Their marital life ran into differences right in the beginning, as Venugopal and his parents started harassing her for additional dowry.
Though the family members from both sides tried to resolve the issue between the couple several times, their differences deteriorated further. Unable to bear anymore, Padmavathi lodged a complaint against her husband with Disha police station. Following this, the couple underwent several counselling sessions. These did not help as Venugopal did not mend his ways. Instead, he served a legal notice to his wife for divorce, the DSP said.
After Venugopal filed the divorce petition, he sent Padmavathi to her parents’ house and went back to Hyderabad. On January 4, the couple were supposed to appear before the court with regard to their divorce petition. However, Padmavathi refused to respond to divorce notices. Enraged with this, Venugopal and his family members hatched a plan to eliminate her, with the help of his friend Santosh.
“On January 5, Venugopal reached his in-law's house and after convincing them, he took Padmavathi along with him to his home. With the help of his father, mother and his friend Santosh, he killed his wife by hitting her head with a wooden reaper. They later wrapped her body in a bedsheet, packed it in a gunny bag along with her belongings, and threw it in Venkatapuram tank,” DSP Murali disclosed. They informed Padmavathi’s parents that she had left her in-laws’ place in a huff.
As Padmavathi's father M. Tirumala Swamy could not contact his daughter, he lodged a police complaint on May 27 with Tirupati East police station. During the course of investigation, police found that it had been Venugopal, his parents K. Pandurangachari (60) and K. Rani (52), and his friend Santosh who had killed Padmavathi.
Police took three of them into custody, while Santhosh is at large.
