VISAKHAPATNAM: Former corporator Chilla Satyavathi (65) was murdered at her residence at Allipuram in the city in the wee hours of Tuesday. Satyavathi was elected as corporator of Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation on Telugu Desam Party ticket in 1996.
The police suspect that Satyavathi was smothered to death with a pillow. The police team led by DCP (Law and Order) Naveen Gulati and ADCP (Crime) S Varadaraju visited the spot. The DCP said that it was a case of murder for gain as over 130 gram gold ornaments were missing from her body.
Satyavathi, a popular person in the locality, was living alone after her husband’s death in her two-storey building. Some shops on the ground floor have been rented out and Satyavathi was surviving on the rents. Satyavathi used to wake up by about 6 am daily. However, she did not come out from her house on Tuesday. When a broom vendor came to the locality, the neighbours of Satyavathi went to the room to inform her about the broom vendor. Even as the neighbours repeatedly knocked on the door, there was no response. Suspecting that something was wrong, they forcibly opened the door and found her body lying on the floor.
The police suspect that a woman vendor from Palasa in Srikakulam district, who has been staying with Satyavathi for the past few months might have killed her and decamped with gold ornaments as the vendor was not found at the spot. The police started searching for the accused. Clues and dog teams were pressed into service. The body was shifted to KGH for postmortem. During the past 11 months three murder cases were reported and the latest one is the fourth one from the Allipuram area.