Married priest impregnates, kills girlfriend at Hyderabad's Saroornagar

The accused priest, who allegedly stoned his paramour to death for forcing him to marry her, has been arrested based on CCTV evidence. He kept the body for two days in his car, later dumped it in a manhole in Hyderabad's Saroornagar and engaged labourers to cover it with two truckloads of soil to stop the bad smell, the police said.

Hyderabad:A temple priest allegedly killed a woman, who became pregnant following their illicit relationship, and dumped her body in a manhole in Hyderabad. The accused priest resorted to the extreme step as the woman brought enormous pressure on him to marry her, police said. A case has been registered in this connection and the accused was arrested on the basis of CCTV footage.

The deceased, identified as Apsara, lived with her mother in the Saroornagar area while the accused, Venkata Saikrishna, has been working as a priest in the Bangaru Maisamma temple in the area. The accused met the woman in the temple and developed a friendship with her. Police said both lived in the same area and Saikrishna used to frequently visit Apsara's house.

Soon, Apsara started pressuring him to marry her as well. But, Saikrishna, who was already married and had a child, rejected her plea. According to the police, Saikrishna hatched a conspiracy to get rid of Apsara as her nagging increased. He convinced her to come with him to Coimbatore on June 3, saying he bought flight tickets. Thinking it was true, Apsara came with her luggage.

Saikrishna told Apsara's mother that she was going to Coimbatore for personal work and would drop her at Shamshabad. Saikrishna and Apsara left Saroornagar in a car at 8.15 that night. They had lunch at a hotel in Rallaguda, Shamshabad Mandal at 10 pm and they went to Goshala in Sultanpally at 11 pm. They spent some time there.

Later, by 3.50 am on June 4th, they reached an empty real estate venture at Narkuda near Goshala. He halted the car her head ten times. He covered the body with the car cover. From there he reached his house in Saroornagar and parked the car with the dead body there. He engaged in his daily activities as if he knew nothing.

When Apsara was not lifting her phone calls, her mother called Saikrishna. He said that after reaching Shamshabad, she changed her mind and went to Bhadrachalam with her friends. Both of them filed a complaint to Shamshabad police on June 5th that Apsara had disappeared. Apsara's body, which had been in the car for two days, was later dumped near Bangaru Maisamma temple in Saroornagar on June 7th. As there was a bad smell, the accused called labourers from LB Nagar and covered the manhole where the body was dumped with two truckloads of soil.

During the investigation, police analysed both the phones of Saikrishna and Apsara and the CCTV footage. Following this, the accused was arrested. On being interrogated, Saikrishna revealed that he had killed Apsara and dumped her body in a septic tank. Based on this information, police reached the spot and dug the septic tank with the help of a JCB machine and recovered the victim's body. Later, the body was sent to the Osmania mortuary for postmortem. Police said the case was being investigated from all angles.