Youngster's body chopped into pieces, buried by his lover's father in AP

TIRUPATI: A 23-year-old man's body, chopped into pieces, was found buried at Pengaragunta of Palamaner mandal in Chittoor district on Friday. The body, identified as that of Dhana Sekhar, who was missing for the last six days, was recovered from a farm land in the village.

Disclosing the case details to this newspaper, Palamaner sub-division DSP Mr C.M. Gangaiah said the family members of the deceased lodged a missing complaint with Palamaner Police on 26th of this month after he went missing on May 22 night.

CI Jaya Ramaiah and team, who launched an investigation into the case, found that the deceased, who had been working as a driver in Bengaluru, was in love with a 17-year-old girl from the village. Based on his call data, the team took a person identified as Babu, 45, into custody as the last three calls to the victim’s mobile were made from his phone.

“During the interrogation, the primary suspect confessed to killing Dhana Sekhar, by hitting his head with a stick in a fit of rage, at his house on 22nd night, when he saw him in her daughter’s bedroom. Prior to this, Babu’s daughter called Dhana Sekhar over phone and asked him to come to their house as her father has gone to his farm land on a work”, the DSP said.

When Babu returned home at around 1am, he saw Dhana Sekhar and his daughter in the bedroom. Enraged after seeing them together, Babu hit Dhana Sekhar on his head with a stick and he died on the spot. Later, the accused with the help of his wife and daughter, packed the dead body in a gunny bag and dropped it in a well in his farm land in the wee hours on 23rd, the DSP said.

Two days later, when Babu spotted the body floating, he fished it out and hid it somewhere in his farm land. On the same night, he went back to the farm and cut the body into pieces, before burying it in the same place. The police, on Friday, inspected the place where the body was buried, in the presence of forensic experts.

“The body was exhumed in the presence of MRO and an inquest over the dead body was held on the spot. The FIR registered, based on the missing complaint, was altered under relevant sections and Babu, his wife Sujatha and his daughter were taken into custody and sent to remand”, the DSP said.