Hyderabad: In order to take revenge on her husband, a postal department employee, and claim his death benefits, a woman from Vanasthalipuram hatched a plan to eliminate him with the help of his driver.
The accused duo, who tried to stage the death as an accident, was arrested within 24 hours of the complaint. They were sent to judicial remand by the police on Monday.
On Sunday morning, the Vanasthalipuram police received a complaint from one Kethavath Chandru Nayak, that a road accident had taken place near Gurramguda crossroads at around 2.30 am, in which one person identified as Keshya Naik, 43, was found dead in an MUV (TS 07 UE 2221) and another person who was driving the car received mild injuries.
The police team on rushing to the crime scene, found the damage that occurred due to the accident seemed little. The left portion of the MUV’s bonnet had hit the electricity pole and Naik did not receive any external injuries.
The body was recovered and sent for post mortem examination to Osmania General Hospital, where the forensic doctors confirmed that the death was due to strangulation, but not caused by the accident.
Vanasthalipuram sub-inspector Ch. Sudhakar said, “On inspecting the crime scene, we understood that the death of Naik was not due to the accident, but it was clear that he had been killed and the accident was to stage a drama. The doctors after the autopsy also confirmed it. Car driver Sabavath Vinod, 23, of Nandinavanaprthi village was taken into custody and on questioning him, the facts surfaced.”
The sub-inspector said that Naik, who was a Grade I officer in the Department of Posts, got transferred from Begumpet to Medak, about a month ago. He was married to one K. Padma, 32, about 20 years ago, but the couple did not have any children.
About 10 years after his first marriage, Naik married another woman and was blessed with a son and a daughter. On coming to know this, Padma lodged a complaint at Thripurama police station, and the case has come up for trial at Nindamanur Court.
Meanwhile, Padma who was feeling upset that her husband was not taking care of her and giving her any money, shared her grief with Vinod, who was working as a part-time driver with Naik.
On Monday morning, Vinod and Padma were caught by the police at Injapur and were questioned, during when they revealed about their plot to eliminate Naik.
“During her conversation with Vinod, Padma said that if her husband died, she would get a job on a compassionate basis and also get cash benefits from the government as she was the nominee. Vinod then asked her to give '10 lakh to eliminate Naik, to which Padma agreed and gave an advance of Rs15,000.
Accused Vinod took Naik to a bar on Saturday night and made him drink alcohol heavily. After driving the car for a distance, he locked it and strangulated Naik, then rammed the car into an electricity police, to stage the death as an accident,” the sub-inspector said.
