GUNTUR: The mystery behind the murder of A Jyothi, which kept Guntur police on their toes, was finally unravelled with the police arresting two of the killers on Saturday. One of them is Jyothi’s friend, who faked the ‘attack drama’.
It may be recalled that Jyothi was found murdered behind the under-construction stadium at Navaluru on February 11 night. Her friend, Chenchu Srinivas, was found beside her with injuries. Initially, he tried to make the police believe that unidentified persons had tried to sexually assault Jyothi and when they resisted, the duo was attacked.
Speaking to media persons on Saturday, Guntur SP Ch Vijaya Rao said Srinivas, a small-time contractor, had intended to murder Jyothi for long when she started pestering him to marry her after their friendship turned intimate. But Srinivas was not inclined to marry Jyothi as he had sexual relationships with others as well. The duo was residents of Tadepalli, the SP said.
Srinivas discussed the plan to eliminate Jyothi with his friend Katari Pawan Kalyan, who agreed to assist him. While they were waiting for an opportunity to kill her, Jyothi on February 11 morning called up Srinivas and asked him to meet her at Mangalagiri.
Srinivas and Kalyan took the opportunity to execute their murder plan. They took an iron rod from a petrol filling station in Tadepalli and chose the bushy place behind the under-construction stadium at Navaluru to attack Jyothi. Srinivas left Pawan Kalyan at the spot and went to Mangalagiri to pick up Jyothi.
After picking her up from an Internet cafe, Srinivas took her to the selected spot on his bike. When Jyothi argued with him over delay in marriage, Srinivas managed to convince her, and as per plan, made her lie on the ground on the pretext of making love.
“At this juncture, Kalyan attacked her with the iron rod. To make sure that she was dead, Srinivas too hit her on the head with the rod,” the SP said, adding he asked Kalyan to hit him too to paint the incident as an attack. Srinivas suffered a deep injury and had to be administered 25 stitches.
Later, Kalyan went back to Tadepalli. He called up Srinivas and the latter told them that he met with an accident near Navaluru. After alerting the police and 108 ambulance service, Kalyan along with another friend Sisindri Reddy went in search of Srinivas, the police said.
“Srinivas misled us by claiming they were attacked by two unknown persons,” Vijaya Rao said. Apart from being pestered to marry her, Srinivas also had some financial issues with Jyothi, the police added. On the fiasco during postmortem, the SP said the lower rung staff didn’t follow the instructions of higher officials leading to suspension of some of them.
Accused misled cops
Chenchu Srinivas discussed the plan to eliminate Jyothi with his friend Katari Pawan Kalyan, who agreed to assist him. He misled police by saying that two assailants had attacked them in Mangalagiri