Hyderabad: Woman, lover held for burning husband alive

HYDERABAD: A woman and her boyfriend were arrested on Saturday for murdering her husband, wherein, according to the police, the boyfriend performed the crime and live-streamed it to the woman in her home town in Andhra Pradesh.

On May 10, the woman, identified as 26-year-old Jai Bhavani, a resident of Allwyn Colony, told the police and her relatives that her husband, 36-year-old Jai Krishna, died due to accidental burns he suffered while cooking. She said she was away in her home town in Vizianagaram along with her two kids, Sai Kiran and Sai Teja.

After a preliminary probe, the Jagatgirigutta police registered a case of suspicious death under Section 174 of the CrPC and the victim’s body was cremated after an autopsy.

However, the police were tipped off by a relative of the victim on May 18 about the woman’s two-year-old extramarital relationship with 22-year-old Chinna alias Chandu, a gym trainer based in Chandanagar.

Upon receiving the information, the police detained Bhavani and Chinna for questioning and cracked the case based by analysing their phone records.

Police sources said that the duo confessed to having physical relations and said that they were caught in a compromising position by Krishna, who requested them to stop the affair and forget it.

On May 8, as per their plan, Bhavani left for her parents’ house and Chinna visited Krishna on May 9, apologising first and then getting him drunk, on the pretext of leaving the city.

The police said that after Krishna blacked out due to excessive drinking, Chinna video-called Bhavani, who watched the events unfold while munching on chips.

Chinna, meanwhile, shut the doors and windows of the house, poured petrol on Krishna and set him ablaze. Further, he made it seem like an accident by shifting his body to near the kitchen stove and then walking out of the house in the early hours of May 10, the police said.

“We first grounded them and seized their mobile phones, retrieved the videos of the murder in which Bhavani was enjoying watching and speaking to Chinna while he doused Krishna in petrol and set him ablaze,” said K. Kranthi Kumar, Jagatgiri police inspector said.

The police booked the two of them for murder and also under sections of misleading investigation and tampering with evidence.

“We arrested both the accused, collected their confessional statements, seized their mobile phones with audio and videos of the murder scene, which will be used as exhibits during the prosecution,” Kumar said.