The police in Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday arrested a man for allegedly killing a 19-year-old Dalit woman in Anantapur district of the state, NDTV reported. The accused, who was in a relationship with the woman, set her body on fire.
The accused, identified as Gooty Rajesh, worked as a mason. The woman, Snehalatha, got a contract job at the State Bank of India and reportedly befriended a classmate in college, after which Rajesh planned to kill her. According to the police, Snehalatha and Rajesh spoke 1,618 times in the last one year.
The police said Rajesh strangled Snehalatha when he met her on Tuesday while arguing about her friendship with the other man. “En route to Ananthapuramu, Gooty Rajesh stopped the bike near a field at Badanapalli and starting questioning her about her intimacy with Praveen [her classmate],” senior police officer Bhusarapu Sathya Yesu Babu said. “This resulted in an argument. He choked her to death and to conceal the identity, he burnt her bank papers and put it on her body, due to which her body was partially burnt. No sexual assault or intercourse took place.”
The woman’s family filed a complaint after her phone had been switched off and she did not return home, according to News18. Her mother said Rajesh had been harassing Snehalatha and used to stalk her. She also named his friend Karthik as co-conspirator in the murder.
Snehalatha’s body was found at an isolated field around 25 km from State Bank of India’s Dharmavaram branch.
“During the course of investigation, the main accused Gooty Rajesh was taken into custody,” Babu said. “He confessed his crime and we also recovered the mobile phone of the victim, which was hidden by him.”
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