Visakhapatnam: The people in Steel City were shocked when they came to know about the brutal murder of a woman in their locality. While the gory murder of Shraddha Walker is still afresh in the memory of the people, this murder has sent shockwaves as the accused chopped the body into pieces and stuffed them in a plastic drum in a room at Disabled Colony in Madhurawada where he was a tenant.
Police on Monday recovered the decomposed body parts of an unknown woman aged about 35 years. The identity of the woman and the motive behind the murder is not known. The police launched a probe into the murder. The body was chopped into pieces and stuffed in the plastic drum and it was sealed tightly with tape.
The police identified one Rishi, a worker in a welding shop in Madhurawada, as the prime accused. The police arrested him and are questioning him. The house owner, A Ramesh, in whose welding shop Rishi worked, told the police that he had rented out the house to Rishi. The accused had stayed in the house with his wife and daughter.
The murder came to light when the owner came to vacate the house by removing belongings of Rishi. The police believe that if the owner of the house does not come, the accused may have planned to bury the plastic bags after the body is fully decomposed. Rishi (40), who is suspected to be the prime accused in the case, is in police custody. Rishi, a native of Seethampet in the Parvathipuram Manyam district. Police have not revealed the identity of the body found in his rented house. The decomposed body parts were packed in plastic bags and sent to KGH Hospital for autopsy.
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The police are investigating whether there were any differences in financial transactions between Rishi and the murdered woman. Owner Ramesh, who runs a welding shop in the city, rented out his house in the Disabled Colony to the Rishi family in 2019. After some years, due to financial constraints, Rishi ended up working at Ramesh's place as a welding assistant. However, he quit the job after two months. Hence, he used to pay rent every two or three months.
Ramesh fell ill and had to stay at home for more than a year. At that time Rishi did not pay the rent for a long time. Though he was not there in the house for almost a year, it has not been vacated. When Ramesh called and asked for rent, he used to he will pay in one or two days. The incident came to light when Ramesh, who was fed up with Rishi, decided to vacate the house and rent it out to someone else, came with his family, and was putting out the belongings.
Clues team members collected fingerprints at the residence where the murder took place. The police in five teams went to Vizianagaram, Parvathipuram Manyam and Srikakulam districts in addition to the city and arrested the accused and also obtained details about him. After checking his call data the details of his current residence were also obtained. Based on the details given by the owner of the house where the body was found, the police registered a case and took up the investigation.
The body was completely decomposed. The police had difficulty identifying the woman as there were no clues related to her. The head is completely decomposed and only the skull remains. Strangely, though the body was decomposed no foul smell emanated. Police are clueless about what kind of precautions the accused took to avoid stench from the body. The police found that prostitution was going on near the place where the murder took place. Therefore, they are inquiring whether any information can be found in that aspect.
