Daughter killed mother with help of aides, police reveal

Hyderabad: The Rachakonda police on Thursday arrested three persons in the gruesome murder case of P Rajitha (38). The arrested were identified as P Keerthi Reddy (19, daughter of the deceased), Ch Bal Reddy (23) and K Shashikumar (28, neighbour of deceased). The police seized one car and four cell phones from the possession of the accused.

According to Rachakonda Police Commissioner Mahesh M Bhagwat, the deceased resided along with her husband Srinivas Reddy (lorry driver) and daughter Keerthi Reddy (degree 2nd year student of a private college in Dilsukhnagar) at Munaganur village and they were natives of Yadadri-Bhongiri district.

Keerthi and her parents were close with their neighbour Shashikumar. Studying in a private college Keerthi developed relationship with Bal Reddy through his sister who is Keerthi's classmate. Keerthi frequently visited Bal Reddy's house.

The ordeal started in September 2018 when Keerthi found out she was pregnant with Bal Reddy's child. The duo decided to get an abortion and planned to go to a private hospital at Amangal town. The duo requested Shashikumar for help.

Accordingly, Shashikumar sought Keerthi's mother's permission and said that they were going to Sangareddy to attend a function. The trio after getting permission went to Amangal where she aborted the child in a private hospital.

The police said that Shashikumar took advantage of the situation and started blackmailing Keerthi for sexual favours. He threatened to inform her parents about her abortion and hence, out of fear Keerthi got into a physical relationship with Shashikumar.

Taking things further, Shashikumar took objectionable photos and intimate videos of them and asked her to continue the relationship and threatened to expose the photos and videos. Shashikumar further demanded Rs 10 lakh from Keerthi, who denied paying. He called her every day and pestered her to cough up the amount.

He also advised Keerthi to kill her mother Rajitha and hatched a plan. On October 19 Shashikumar instructed Keerthi to sprinkle chilli powder on Rajitha's face and allow him entrance to the house. The duo strangulated Rajitha with the help of a towel.

Keerthi caught hold of her mother tightly while Shashikumar strangulated her.

Later, Keerthi called Bal Reddy's father pretending to be Rajitha and informed him that they were out of town and requested him to allow Keerthi to stay at his house. The accused after two days tried to hang the body, but they could not succeed as the body was decomposed and emitting foul smell.

They decided to dispose the body by throwing it on nearby railway track and wrapped it in a bedsheet and tied it with ropes. They took the body to Rammannpeta of Choutuppal railway track and dumped it there.

Keerthi returned to her house and cleaned it and went over to at Bal Reddy's residence. When the Keerthi's relatives asked whereabouts of her mother she informed them that her parents quarrelled often and as she was unable to bear it, she went to Vishakhapatnam.

She told them that she found out that her mother went missing and hence came home. On Saturday, Keerthi lodged a missing complaint with the Hayathnagar police, but after scientific investigation the police arrested the accused on Thursday early morning.