The crime team of Arilova police station has solved the case of murder of a young housewife from Bhilai who was on a visit to her sister’s house at Adarsh Nagar. The team led by Inspector Raghveer Vishnu arrested the accused and recovered the gold chain he had robbed from the victim, here on Wednesday.
The case became sensational as the investigating team was led to probe a different angle, and the accused was present all along the investigation within the close circles of the victim’s family. But a phone call the victim had made to her husband helped police crack the case .
The accused Srinivas (31), resident of Adarsh Nagar, worked as a part-time car driver and is addicted to vices. He was married about a year ago and the alliance was arranged by Jayamma, family friend from the same colony, who is working in a private TV channel.
Srinivas’ marriage was on the brink after his wife left him upset over all her jewellery having been mortgaged and the money spent on his vices. He approached Jayamma on December 15 to mediate with his wife. On that occasion he also met Jayamma’s sister Kumari (19), who had come from Bhilai and and wanted to relocate to Visakhapatnam with her husband and their 15-month-old daughter. Then Srinivas planned to rob Kumari of mangalasutram to gain some money. Fully aware of the office timings of Jayamma and other members of the family, he visited their house the next day, at around 12.45 p.m. After Kumari let him inside, Srinivas asked her to fetch a glass of water and when she went into kitchen, he followed her and killed her by closing her nose and mouth with his hands.
On her return from office Jayamma found Kumari lying on the floor and called her neighbour Srilakshmi. They shifted Kumari to a hospital where she was declared brought dead.
Initially, Jayamma and her family members thought that it was a natural death. But on noticing that mangalsutram of Kumari was missing, she lodged a complaint with the police.
“Kumari’s husband told us that at around 12.50 p.m. on that day he had called Kumari from Bhilai and was informed that ‘Anna’ (brother) was with her at that moment. On investigation Jayamma told us that Srinivas was called as ‘Anna’ within her family circles. We did not suspect Srinivas, as he was present at the victim’s house when the police were investigating at the scene of offence. He was quietly observing what was happening”, said Mr. Raghuveer Vishnu.