NRI abandons wife’s body at airport

​Hyderabad: A 28-year-old woman from Hyderabad died in Australia under suspicious circumstances. The NRI husband of the deceased woman had reportedly abandoned her body at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Shamshabad on Saturday and flew back to Australia.

Ramya Krishna Pendurthy (25), daughter of P Purnachandar Rao was married to Narla Mahanth, son of N Subrahmanyam, an electricity department employee working at Govindaraopet in Warangal district, in August 2012. The couple were living in Melbourne in Australia and Mahanth owned a pizza corner and some outlets there.

During the marriage, parents of the girl gave property worth around Rs one and half crore as dowry. Mahanth recently borrowed Rs 40 lakh from Ramya’s father as he incurred losses in business. On May 17, Ramya last spoke to her mother at 10 am. Two hours later, her parents received a call from the Australian police that their daughter had hanged herself in her house and also said that no suicide note was found at the scene of death.

Ramya’s brother Chaitanya Krishna and her uncle flew to Australia on acquiring an emergency visa clearance from the Immigration authorities. Along with Mahath’s parents, they brought Ramya’s body back to Hyderabad on Saturday.The woman’s parents and relatives alleged that Mahanth, who was obsessed with greed for money, killed Ramya, so that he can claim the insurance money on her death.

They alleged that Mahanth did not even come home for his wife’s cremation and he flew back on the next available flight to Australia, taking Ramya’s passport with him. “My sister’s body was handed over to Mahanth’s brother Sumanth. They demanded us to give my sister’s passport in exchange for her body.

“Though my sister never complained about domestic violence, we came to know about it a year ago, due to the behaviour of Mahanth and his mother,” said Ramya’s brother. He said that to fulfill Mahanth’s financial needs Ramya too started working in a company and was giving him her earnings. Mahanth provoked Ramya to end her life by demanding additional dowry,
alleged her brother.

“We were told that Mahanth and Ramya had an argument and Ramya hanged herself after being denied permission to leave for India. He abandoned my daughter’s body at the airport and left for Australia on the next flight,” said Ramya’s mother.

Chaitanya Krishna said they did not lodge any complaint with the local police, but submitted a letter to the Australian police expressing suspicions on Ramya’s death and requested them to initiate a probe.