A man in Hyderabad murdered his live-in partner and cut her body into pieces with a stone cutting machine to dispose them at different places.
The accused had preserved the legs and hands of the victim in a refrigerator in his house and was spraying disinfectants and perfumes to avoid foul smell in the vicinity.
The shocking crime came to light on Thursday after Hyderabad police solved the mystery behind a severed head found near the Musi river in the city on May 17.
The case has similarities with the Shradda Walker and Nikki Yadav murder cases of Delhi in which the accused had stored body parts of the victims in refrigerators to dispose of them.
Deputy Commissioner of Police, South East Zone, Rupesh Chennuri, said the police achieved the breakthrough with the arrest of B. Chandra Mohan, a bachelor who was doing online trading on the stock market. The 48-year-old had an illegal relationship with Yarram Anuradha Reddy, 55, for the last 15 years.
The woman who was separated from her husband long back was living with Chandra Mohan at his house in Chaitanyapuri colony in Dilsukhnagar.
She has been involved in lending money to the needy on interest since 2018. Differences cropped up between them after Mohan who had taken nearly Rs 7 lakh from her to trade online failed to repay despite her repeated requests. He got vexed with the woman as she was putting pressure on him for the money and hatched a plan to kill her.
On May 12, the accused picked up a quarrel with Reddy at his house and attacked her with a knife. He inflicted stab injuries over her chest and stomach, resulting in her death.
After committing the murder, the accused purchased two small stone-cutting machines in order to cut the body into pieces and dispose of them. He cut the head from the trunk and kept it in a black polythene cover. He then separated legs and hands from the trunk, preserved them in the refrigerator and kept the trunk in a suitcase for disposal.