A former Army man in Hyderabad, Telangana, confessed to killing his wife, dismembering her body, and boiling the remains in a pressure cooker before dumping them in a lake. The gruesome crime came to light after the victim’s parents filed a missing person report on 18 January at the Meerpet Police Station.
The victim, 35-year-old Venkat Madhavi, was last seen at her Jillelaguda home on 15 January. Her husband, Gurumurthy, feigned ignorance and even accompanied her parents to the police station to lodge the complaint. However, CCTV footage from their residence revealed that Madhavi had not left the house after 15 January, raising suspicions and prompting an intense investigation.
Under interrogation, Gurumurthy confessed to murdering Madhavi on 16 January during an argument. He admitted to fatally assaulting her and, in a bid to cover up the crime, dismembered her body. He boiled some body parts in a pressure cooker and disposed of the remains in a lake and trash bins.
Gurumurthy, originally from Prakasam district and employed as a security guard in Kanchanbagh, further disclosed that he packed parts of Madhavi’s body in a gunny bag and threw them into Chandan Lake near Jillelaguda. The accused claimed that the murder occurred due to “sudden provocation” when Madhavi demanded to visit her native place in Nandyal.
The case, initially registered as a missing person’s report, was reclassified as a murder investigation following Gurumurthy’s confession. Police booked him under Sections 103(1), 238, and 85 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Act. Critical evidence, including a stove, knife, roller, and phenyl bottle, was seized to support the investigation.
The probe, supervised by Commissioner of Police G Sudheer Babu, IPS, and DCP of LB Nagar Zone, Ch Praveen Kumar, IPS, was executed by the Meerpet Police. Inspector K Nagaraju and Sub-Inspectors K Sudhakar were lauded for their detailed inquiry and swift action.