KAKINADA : The body of six-year-old Deepthi Sri Ishani was fished out of Upputeru canal at the Indrapalem bridge in Kakinada on Monday three days after she was abducted from her school and killed by her stepmother Santhi Kumari on Thursday. Police took the help of a team of Dharmadi Satyam, who made headlines recently for retrieving Royal Vasishta boat from river Godavari. After three days of intense search, the team traced the body of the girl stuffed in a polythene bag in the muddy water in the canal.
East Godavari SP Nayeem Asmi told mediapersons that the stepmother strangled the girl with a towel at her house and stuffed the body in the bag. Later, she changed two autos to carry the body and threw it into the canal in the night. Deepthi was the daughter of Syam Kumar’s first wife. He married Santhi Kumari after the death of his first wife.
The girl became a bone of contention between Santhi Kumari and Syam and they frequently fought over this. Kumar had sent the girl to his parents house and paid them some money every month for her maintenance. But, Santhi Kumari did not digest this and decided to eliminate the girl.
According to police, the woman plotted the murder all by herself. In one of the CCTV footages, she was seen running with the girl.Syam Kumar demanded that police bring Santhi Kumari to justice, while his sister Surada Swathi said by killing an innocent girl she lost the right to live.