
HYDERABAD: Marital discord led a man from Medipally to allegedly kill his five-month pregnant wife, chop her body into pieces and dump some parts into Musi on Saturday night. When Rachakonda police reached the couple’s rented home on Sunday morning, following an alert from relatives, they only found the victim’s torso. Her head and limbs were missing.Cops arrested the accused, S Mahender Reddy, from the spot and booked him under Sections 103 (murder) and 238 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) of the BNS.
In his confession, the 27-year-old gig worker revealed chilling details about how he allegedly murdered his wife, B Swathi (21), and then dumped some parts in the Musi. Police deployed swimmers and sleuths from the disaster response force to recover the body parts. Till late Sunday night, the teams had made no headway.
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Also read – ‘Gave them Scorpio, they still wanted Rs 36 lakh’: Woman tortured, set ablaze by in-laws in Greater Noida; husband held, others on runMahender and Swathi, who were neighbours in Vikarabad, had an inter-caste marriage at Arya Samaj in Jan 2024. Their marital life was peaceful for a month, but subsequently the couple started to have arguments, police said.“In April 2024, Swathi filed a domestic harassment case against Mahender in Vikarabad. But village elders intervened and the matter was settled. From June 2024 onwards, the couple started living in a rented house at Boduppal,” DCP (Malkajgiri) PV Padmaja Reddy said.“For three months, the deceased worked at a call centre in Punjagutta. But then the accused grew suspicious and forced her to quit,” the DCP added.Recently, police said, the victim expressed her interest to visit Vikarabad for a medical check-up as she was pregnant and stay with her parents.“The accused did not agree and it led to an altercation. The victim even abused the accused. That’s when he decided to eliminate her,” a cop said.At 4.30 pm on Saturday, Mahender allegedly throttled her. Then, in order to conceal evidence, he chopped the body into pieces using a saw-like object, disposed of the head, hands, and legs into Musi at Pratapsingaram. He retained the torso.“After dismembering the body, he called his sister in Vikarabad and told her that Swathi had gone missing. His sister, in turn, alerted their relative in Hyderabad to meet Mahender,” said a cop.Both Mahender and the relative even went to the police station to lodge a missing person’s complaint. However, after talking to him, the investigators started to suspect him. When he was interrogated, he confessed to the crime.Police also found CCTV footage in which Mahender is seen coming out of his house wearing a backpack and holding a cover. Her parents alleged that the accused never allowed Swathi to visit them.