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Neighbours of Putta Venkata Madhavi and Gurumurthy, who had been living in a rented single-bedroom house in Jillelaguda on the outskirts of Hyderabad for the past five years, said Friday the family never spoke to them.
A native of Prakasam in Andhra Pradesh, Gurumurthy works as an outsourced security guard at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) facility in Kanchanbagh. While Gurumurthy worked for 17 years in the Indian Army and retired as Naib Subedar in 2020, Madhavi was a homemaker. They have two children.
Gurumurthy on Wednesday claimed to the Rachakonda police he killed his wife of 13 years in a fit of rage by smashing her head against a wall, and dumping the chopped body parts in different locations.
On Friday morning, the bylanes of the New Venkateshwara Colony looked deserted with the gate of the house locked from outside. Neighbours said the owners, who lived on the first floor, left amid the inflow of media persons and curious by-passers.
“When we have Ganesh Chavithi festivities, the entire colony gathers at the pandal. In all these years, the Gurumurthy family never joined. Their children never played with ours. They preferred to stay aloof,” said a neighbour, who did not want to be named.
“Most of the families in the colony had gone to their native places for Sankranthi. We didn’t know she was missing till January 19. And now everyone says she was murdered in this house. It is shocking for us too,” said another neighbour, who said the family kept to themselves and never had any fights or arguments with anyone.
Keesara Nagaraju, Station House Officer, Meerpet police station, said Madhavi’s family suspect the role of Gurumurthy in their daughter’s disappearance. “Gurumurthy and his in-laws have had family disputes for five years and that was the reason why they moved to Hyderabad five years ago. Madhavi wanted to go to her parents in Nandyal in AP for Sankranthi this year. The man’s ego was hurt in the altercation on January 16,” said Nagaraju.
He said the police also found out that Gurumurthy did not report to work on January 15 and 16. “CCTV footage shows Madhavi entering their home and not coming out. We have call data records and cellphone location. But we are still investigating for the missing person,” Nagaraju told The Indian Epxress.
According to the police complaint lodged on January 18, Madhavi went missing on January 16 after a fight with Gurumurthy as she wanted to visit her parents in Nandyal for Sankranthi. The complaint was lodged after her parents and Gurumurthy approached the police.
While the police launched a search for Madhavi, they grew suspicious of Gurumurthy’s possible role and questioned him. During the questioning, he allegedly claimed to have killed Madhavi.
However, Ch Praveen Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (L B Nagar), said they are yet to find the body parts of Madhavi allegedly dumped by Gurumurthy. Kumar said they don’t think it was a premeditated crime but seemed like the result of a “petty quarrel”. “We are questioning the suspect and we have not recovered any body parts. We do not have enough clues,” he added.
G Sudheer Babu, Commissioner, Rachakonda police, told indianexpress.com on Thursday evening that they “can’t go by mere claims”. “We are collecting all technical and scientific evidence. The case is under investigation.”
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