UPI payment helps Hyderabad police track killer

HYDERABAD: A UPI payment made by the accused after dumping the severed head of an unidentified woman at Malakpet a week ago led police to trace the killer B. Chandramohan, 48, an online trader and also identify the victim Yarram Anuradha Reddy, 55.

While analysing CCTV footage, police suspected a person and tracked him. They found that he stopped at a shop and made a purchase through UPI.

Tracking the phone number using which the transaction was made, followed by piecing together other clues, police reached the accused, who had stored the victim’s chopped limbs and trunk portion in a refrigerator.

Further to mislead her relatives and her only daughter residing in Australia, he kept interacting with them from her mobile, informing them that she was busy with some work and was leaving for a 10-day-long pilgrimage.

DCP South East Zone Ch. Rupesh said that multiple teams worked on the case. “After the severed head was found on May 17, teams zeroed in on four cameras in the vicinity and started analysing data. In this manner, footage of over 200 hours till May 12 was analysed,” he said.

A few suspects who were spotted in the area were identified. After ruling out one after the other, they zeroed in on the accused and all the clues gathered so far corroborated him, establishing that he was the murderer.

Further, on questioning he revealed that he had killed his partner-turned-tenant. Chandramohan admitted that he owed around Rs 7 lakh to her and as she was pressuring him to return the money, he killed her on May 12.

He purchased stone cutters to chop her body into six parts and stored the limbs and trunk in the refrigerator at her flat. Later, he dumped the head near Musi on May 15. The murder came to light after the head was spotted by sanitation workers on May 17.

The victim after losing her husband had sent her only daughter to her sister for further care. For the past 15 years, she was in a relationship with the accused, due to which he accommodated her on a portion of the ground floor of his house at Chaitanyapuri, while he along with his mother, 95, stayed on the first floor.

After killing her, he purchased floor cleaners, disinfectants, paints, incense, and room fresheners and used them on the chopped body to control the smell.
As very few people in the neighbourhood knew him and the woman, nobody suspected him.

Even when police rounded him on suspicion like they questioned several others, he was confident to evade them, but some material found in the backyard of his house and the smell from the victim’s portion gave him out to the police.