A local court in Telangana Wednesday sentenced a priest to life imprisonment for murdering an aspiring TV actor, Kuruganti Apsara, in June 2023. The Rangareddy district court in L B Nagar found Iyyagari Venkata Sai Krishna guilty of killing Kuruganti Apsara, 30, dumping the body in a defunct manhole at a government office premises, and sealing it.
The court also fined the convict Rs 10 lakh, and directed him to pay Rs 9.75 lakh to the victim’s family and the rest towards the court.
Additional Public Prosecutor Ravikumar Vodyarapu said Krishna, who was already married, planned Apsara’s murder due to her insistence on marriage.
On June 3, 2023, Krishna took Apsara in his car towards Shamshabad under the pretence of travelling to Coimbatore. Instead of boarding a bus, he drove her to Navrang Venture in Narkuda. While Apsara dozed off in the vehicle, Krishna smothered her with the car’s body cover, and repeatedly struck her with a stone, inflicting fatal head injuries, according to Vodyarapu.
Krishna then brought Apsara’s body back to his apartment in Saroornagar, and kept it in the parking area for approximately two days. He then disposed of the body in a drainage manhole located behind the Saroornagar Sub-Registrar’s Office. Krishna filled the manhole with red soil and then cemented it to conceal the crime, the additional public prosecutor said.
The police said on June 5, 2023, Krishna misled Apsara’s mother by claiming that her daughter had gone to Bhadrachalam with friends, and was unreachable. He also accompanied the victim’s mother to the RGI Airport Police Station where he filed a ‘missing person’ report.
During the investigation, the police questioned Krishna, who confessed to the murder, leading to the recovery of the body, the weapon used in the crime, and other evidence. Based on this, the police altered the case from a missing person report, and filed charges under sections 302 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
