Hyderabad: Priest sentenced to life term for woman''s murder

A court here on Wednesday sentenced a 36-year-old priest to life imprisonment for murdering a woman in June 2023.

The court found A Venkat Surya Sai Krishna alias Sai Krishna guilty under relevant sections of IPC and sentenced him to life imprisonment and imposed Rs 10 lakh fine.

According to prosecution, Sai Krishna, who was already married made the 30-year-old woman believe that he would marry her and developed a relationship with her.

The woman had asked Sai Krishna to marry her and stated that if he failed to marry her she would expose him. Vexed with her behaviour, he decided to kill the woman, the prosecution argued.

On June 3, 2023, the accused picked up the woman from her home in a car and smothered her with a cover and hit her with a stone on her head and killed her.

He carried her body in the car and later dumped it in a manhole.

He took the mother of the victim to a police station and lodged a complaint stating that her daugther was missing.

On June 6, 2023 he brought two tipper loads of red soil and covered the manhole. He also burnt her handbag and luggage. After that he washed his car and parked it in his apartment. The following day, he visited the spot and after noticing the bad smell emanating, he got some labourers to cover and seal the manhole with concrete, according to the prosecution.

After verifying the CCTV footage, the police found that there were contradictions in the account of the accused. During interrogation, he confessed to having murdered the woman and got arrested, Shamshabad police had earlier said.