Shamshabad case: Man gets lifer for killing girlfriend

HYDERABAD: The I Additional Sessions Court at Sangareddy on Monday sentenced Sunil Kumar alias Deepak to rigorous imprisonment for life for killing his techie girlfriend in the Shamshabad airport hotel and dumping her body at Suraram on the city outskirts in 2019. The court also imposed a fine of ₹10,000 on him.

Rigorous imprisonment means work involving hard labour like breaking rocks and digging land, an official said.

Police said they had submitted to the court, technical evidence to prove that the victim was last seen with Kumar. They also collected CCTV footage, call records, mobile locations and hotel records as evidence. They also submitted to the court statements of her family members, staff at the airport hotel and other places, where the duo moved around before her death.

Police said the duo became friends while studying engineering and entered into a relationship. Kumar promised to marry the victim and had intercourse with her. When she started pressuring him for marriage, he tried to evade her.

Sunil, who was then working as a structural engineer, told her family that he got a job in Muscat and that he would take the victim along with him to find a job abroad. They travelled to the airport where feigning illness, he created a delay.

He then claimed that the flight had departed. They checked into the airport hotel, where he killed her. He stole her gold jewellery and stuffed her body, her passport and other belongings into her suitcase.

He left the hotel with the suitcase, went to Suraram in a cab and dumped the body in a drain. From the victim’s mobile, he sent a message to her sister informing them that she had come back to the city and she was on the way home.

When she did not return, her family lodged a missing complaint at the RC Puram police. The police then tracked him down and retrieved the victim’s body based on his confession.