ELURU: The police arrested four persons including a woman in connection with two separate murder cases under the limits of Narasapuram police sub-division in West Godavari district on Tuesday.
Superintendent of police Bhaskar Bhushan told reporters that P Padmanabha Raju of Polamuru village in Penumantra mandal and V Venkatraju of Akiveedu were working as clerks in an office in Akiveedu. Padmanabha Raju envied Venkatraju, as the latter won confidence of the employers.
On April 18, he along with his friend G Kanaka Rao of Polamuru village, an old criminal, went to Venkatraju’s house in Adarsh Nagar Colony, in his absence. When his wife Bhagyaakshmi went inside to make tea, the duo followed her into the kitchen and killed her. Later, they stole the gold ornaments on her body, doused her with oil and burnt her. The Akiveedu police registered a case as ‘murder for gain’.
On Monday night, the police caught the accused at Pedamiram village in Kalla mandal and seized 4.5 sovereigns gold ornaments from them. They (cops) are yet to recover another 4.5 sovereigns gold, the SP added.
In another case, the Bhimavaram Rural police arrested Ch Durga and her lover P Nagendra for killing her husband Ch Venkateswara Rao, a mason, from Vavilalapadu village in Kalla mandal of the district.
Durga developed illicit affair with Nagendra of Elurupadu village in Kalla mandal recently. She threatened to commit suicide if he did not kill her husband. They both hatched a plot to kill Rao.
As part of it, Nagendra took Rao to Barrivanipeta on a bike for consuming liquor. However, he served pesticide-laced alcohol to Rao and the latter died. Later, he dumped the body in an irrigation channel at Bondada Lanka.
On being alerted by passersby, the police fished out the body and sent it to hospital for post-mortem. They registered a case of suspicious death and identified Rao with the help of his relatives, who expressed suspicion over Durga’s role in the killing. The cops arrested Nagendra and Durga on Monday evening, the SP added.
District additional SP N Chandrasekhar, Narasapuram DSP G Poornachanda Rao, Bhimavaram Rural CI RG Jayasurya and SI N Srinivasa Rao were present.