On March 5, the accused misled Apsara’s mother claiming that she had gone to Bhadrachalam with friends and was unreachable, accompanied her and filed a false missing complaint at the RGIA police station
Hyderabad: The XI Additional District and Sessions Judges Court at LB Nagar sentenced Ayyagari Venkata Sai Krishna to seven years of rigorous life imprisonment for murdering a woman. The convict was also ordered to pay Rs.10 lakh with Rs.9.75 lakh to be paid to the victim’s family and Rs.25,000 to be remitted to the government.
The convict in the case is a priest at Bangaru Maisamma Temple in Saroornagar. In 2023, the victim, Kuruganti Apsara, came to Hyderabad to pursue her MBA. While she was residing in Saroornagar, she got acquainted with Sai Krishna, and the two met very often.
Apsara was unaware of Sai Krishna’s pre-existing marriage. After learning of it, she reportedly asked him to marry her. Fearing that his position in his community would be jeopardised once the relationship gets public, he decided to eliminate her.
On June 3, 2023, under the pretext of travelling dropping her at a bus to Coimbatore, the accused took Apsara in his car to Shamshabad, and drove her around. When she fell sick and dozed off in the car, he killed her.
Sai Krishna took her body to his apartment, keeping it in the parking area for two days before disposing of it in a drainage manhole behind the Saroornagar sub-registrar’s office. To avoid detection, he filled the manhole with red soil and later cemented it.
On March 5, the accused misled Apsara’s mother claiming that she had gone to Bhadrachalam with friends and was unreachable, accompanied her and filed a false missing complaint at the RGIA police station.
Upon police interrogation, Sai Krishna confessed to the murder, leading to the recovery of the dead body, crime weapon (stone) and other evidence. Based on this, the police altered the case from a missing person to that of murder.
Speaking of evidence gathering, Shamshabad inspector K. Narender Reddy said, “The first suspect the investigation team landed on was Sai Krishna as they had a relationship going on for quite some time. Further, the cell phone data of both the victim and the accused were analysed. Common location coordinates increased the suspicion. CCTV cameras also captured the two together on several occasions, including on the day Apsara was murdered. The fingerprints of the accused also matched.”
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Sridhar Sharma, father of the victim, said, “I would like to thank the police and the media as they played a pivotal role in getting my daughter justice. No matter what the situation be, I hope a woman is never killed this way.”
