The police cracked the murder case of the former corporator of GVMC in just 96 hours by arresting the accused. The police on Sunday confirmed that the former corporator, Chilla Satyavathi (70), was smothered to death by a group of four persons for gain. The police took all the four, including two juveniles in conflict with law, into custody and recovered the stolen property from them. The former corporator was found dead in the living room of her three-storeyed building at Allipuram in the city last Tuesday. Initially, the police could not ascertain whether it was a murder or a natural death. But based on certain clues and the post-mortem report, the police zeroed in on the murder angle.
The police arrested Sangu Naga Raju (25), a native of Nalgonda district, his wife Sangu Padma, and his two sons aged 10 and 17 years. Raju moved to the city about five years ago and has been a tenant of Satyavathi since last few months.
Planned murder
According to DCP (law and order) Navin Gulati, the accused Naga Raju, who works as a labourer at an aluminium shop, was living in the second floor of the building. “He hatched a plot and three or four days before the murder, he convinced Satyavathi that his youngest son would give her company and sleep with her, as she was aged and there may be some emergencies. Satyavathi was childless and a kind-hearted person and immediately agreed to the offer, as she had a liking for the child,” said Mr. Navin.
On the day of the murder, Naga Raju gave a cell phone to his 10-year-old son and told him to call him up once Satyavathi was fast asleep and also open the door from inside. In the wee hours, when Satyavathi was asleep, the 10-year-old opened the door and called his father. All the family members, including his 17-year-old son, came inside and smothered the woman to death with a pillow and made good with four bangles and a gold chain and went back to their room in the second floor, said the DCP.
Investigation
The initial inspection of the crime scene and the body revealed no apparent foul play, as the room was not disturbed and there were no visible external injuries.
“It was revealed only in the post-mortem report and that got us ticking. Even the dog squad was not able to lead us to any clues. We were initially examining the property angle as the deceased had recently executed a will in the name of her brothers’ children and grandchildren, as she had no children of her own. But we collected about five fingerprints from the crime scene and a detailed cross-check led us to the tenants Naga Raju and his family. And on questioning they confessed to have committed the crime,” said ADCP (crime) S. Varadaraju.
According to Mr. Navin, it was a sensational case as there were no initial clues and the needle of suspicion was pointing towards a different angle. He appreciated the detection work done by inspector K. Rama Rao and his team.
