Police crack double murder case in Ongole

Ongole: The Prakasam police on Thursday cracked the murder of a woman and her infant child after working for more than two weeks and arrested husband of the victim in this connection.

Addressing media here on Thursday, Superintendent of Police Siddharth Kaushal said the taskforce team identified the victims as Addanki Srilakshmi, 20 and an 11 month-old infant Vyshnavi, both are residents of Addanki.

He said the husband of woman, Addanki Koteswara Rao, who discontinued MBBS in Kazakhstan, is working as a pharmacy assistant in KIMS Hospital Ongole. He and the victim, whose native place is Nellore, fall in love about two years ago and married in Guntur on April 28, 2018.

The SP said the accused was suspecting the fidelity of victim for a long time and was harassing her claiming that he didn't father the child. On December 3, the accused Koteswara Rao came to hospital for duty and put thumb impression to register the attendance.

Later he took permission from doctor, borrowed the bike of his colleague and reached home, after storing a bottle of petrol in the vehicle. He asked the wife to bring the child also for work and took them to Pernamita road.

After an argument, he slit the throat of child with a knife brought with him and used a stone to break the head of woman. Later, he put the body of child on her mother, poured petrol and set ablaze. He returned the bike to his colleague and put the thumb to register the attendance after duty, creating a successful alibi.

After registering a complaint from VRO Peddakothapalli at Maddipadu police, the SP said Ongole DSP KVVNV Prasad, Rural CI P Subbarao and Maddipadu SI Sk Khadar Basha started the investigation.

Based on footage recorded in 210 CC cameras around the scene of offence, the police interacted with 350 ANMs and 2,250 Asha workers to collect information about the missing child and woman in their area. After verifying addresses of 3,000 motorbikes in footage, the police found a man along with the woman and girl child travelling in road to Pernamitta.

The SP said the accused confessed to the murders in the presence of mediators and congratulated the members of taskforce team for successful cracking the case.