Vijayawada: Guntur police have arrested three persons in connection with the murder of a man, which the accused tried to look as a road accident. The accused include the deceased’s wife, her lover, and an associate. The accused were identified as Pernapati Venkateswarlu (38), Sheikh Khaseem Saida (27), and Chennamsetti Lakshmi (32), wife of the deceased. The case was cracked by Medikonduru police through technical evidence and analysis of CCTV footage. District SP Vakul Jindal said the body of Chennamsetti Govindaraju (40), an auto driver from Pedapalakaluru village in Guntur, was found on a road near Perecherla on Sep 19. His father, Chennamsetti Suryanarayana (70), lodged a complaint suspecting foul play, following which Medikonduru police launched an investigation. While going through CCTV footage, police spotted a suspicious auto near the crime scene. It was found that the owner of the vehicle recently sold it to Venkateswarlu from Sattenapalli. Police intercepted Venkateswarlu and his associate Khaseem Saida near Medikonduru on Monday. During interrogation, both admitted to the murder. Lakshmi was arrested on Tuesday morning from Pedapalakaluru.Jindal said Lakshmi, who was living separately from her husband for the past six years, developed an extramarital relationship with Venkateswarlu about three years ago, and conspired with him to eliminate her husband to secure property rights and share the proceeds. “On Sep 18, Venkateswarlu and Saida lured Govindaraju out and offered him alcohol. When he got intoxicated, they attacked and strangled him near NSP canal, and staged the crime to resemble a road accident. They placed the body in their auto and abandoned it on the Perecherla-Palakaluru road in the early hours of Sep 19, near the victim’s village, to make it appear that he had been hit by a vehicle while intoxicated,” he explained.
