Vijayawada: Police have cracked the mystery behind the murder of a woman in Kanuru within 24 hours. They have arrested three persons at Penamaluru in NTR district on Wednesday for conspiring to kill her.According to police, Aithabathula Mrudula and Rishendra had been in love and entered into wedlock in 2007. The couple have two sons. Mrudula started working in a body care centre. In August 2021, she got into a relationship with a customer Polasi Sai Praveen, who used to visit the centre regularly. In April, 2022, Mrudula eloped with Praveen to Chennai and started living there.
Based on a complaint lodged by Rishendra about his wife missing, police booked a case. They traced and restored Mrudula to her husband. Subsequently, Mrudula and Praveen set up a house around Gannavaram. She used to visit her Rishendra and lift valuables from the house. Finally, she left her husband and started living with Praveen at Prasadampadu in Gannavaram from February 2023.
When his younger son fell ill, Rishendra called up Mrudula to take care of him. Assuming that Rishendra would force her to visit home on some pretext or other, Mrudula thought of implicating him in a murder case and sending him to jail.
She sought help from Praveen for the purpose. Praveen lured his old acquaintance Garigala Nagamani to a farmland at Kanuru on January 13, 2024. He cajoled her into recording her voice claiming that Rishendra has forced her to mortgage her gold for money and abused her sexually. That Rishendra should be held responsible in case anything happens to her.
Thereafter, Praveen suffocated Nagamani to death with her chunni. He sent her recorded message to Mrudula and Nagamani's husband Garigala Kiran Gopal. Praveen sought the help of a third accused Murthy in burying Nagamani's body with her chunni and phones.
On January 14, a farm labourer raised an alarm after noticing Nagamani’s dead body. Police took up investigation, zeroed in on Praveen, Murthy and Mrudula, and arrested them.
