Hyderabad: A 28-year-old graduate was strangled to death by her stepmother with the help of two others to prevent the victim from getting a share of her father’s property. The incident occurred in Dec 2024 at Medipally and came to light on Friday when police exhumed the body from the Musi riverbed in Vangamarthy village of Nalgonda district, following the confession of the accused. Police arrested the trio on Friday.
The victim, J Maheshwari, was a native of Padamati Thanda in Jangaon district. Her father, J Peena, works as non-teaching staff at Osmania University. According to police, Peena married Lalitha, 35, in 2009 after separating from his first wife. He has a daughter and a son from the first marriage. While the son stayed back in the village with his mother, the daughter, Maheshwari, came to Medipally to stay with Peena and her stepmother, Lalitha.
In Nov 2024, Peena arranged Maheshwari’s marriage and promised to give her a house worth 1 crore in Medipally. Lalitha raised an objection, Medipally inspector Govinda Reddy said.
Lalitha was not happy and, with the support of her cousin Ravi Kumar, 32, an Army jawan from Kommal village in Suryapet district, and his friend, B Veeranna, 28, a computer operator at a gas agency in Bibi Nagar, hatched a plan to murder Maheshwari.
“As per the plan, on Dec 7, 2024, the trio strangled Maheshwari with a stole at Peena’s house in Medipally. After committing the murder, Ravi and Veeranna took the body to the Musi river in Vangamarthy village in a car and buried it in the sand on the riverbed,” the inspector said.
After committing the murder, Lalitha kept telling Peena that Maheshwari might have eloped with someone and discouraged him from approaching the police, citing the humiliation the family would suffer if outsiders came to know about the elopement.
Finally, on April 2, 2025, Peena lodged a missing complaint with Medipally police, and a case was registered.
During the investigation, police verified the CCTV footage at different places and analysed the call details of the victim. During the questioning, Lalitha confessed to committing the murder with the help of Ravi and Veeranna. Police arrested the trio on Friday and exhumed the body from the Musi riverbed on Friday at Vangamarthy.
“A spot post-mortem was conducted. The trio has been arrested. The missing case has been altered to murder,” Malkajgiri DCP PV Padmaja said.
