Tirupati: Techie kills wife, packs body in bag and dumps it into lake

TIRUPATI: The police on Tuesday arrested a techie, who allegedly killed his wife, packed her body in a jute bag and later dumped it into a lake. The Tirupati east police took pains in cracking the sensational case, which has several twists and turns. The murder took place in January and it took five months for the investigating officers to crack the mystery and arrest the accused.
Tirupati east division DSP T Murali Krishna said the accused, Kamsali Venugopal (34), a software engineer working with a company in Hyderabad, married M Padmavathi in 2019. Their marital life was not smooth from the beginning due to differences between the couple. Venugopal allegedly would harass her for additional dowry.
Their families and relatives tried in vain to resolve the issues but the relationship only deteriorated. Padmavathi lodged a complaint against her husband. But Venugopal did not mend his ways and served a legal notice for divorce.
When Padmavathi refused to respond to the divorce notices, Venugopal and his family hatched a plan to eliminate her, with the help of his roommate Santosh, the police said. As per their plan, Venugopal and Santosh reached Padmavathi’s residence in Tirupati on January 5, 2022 and convinced her parents to send her as he (Venugopal) had mended his behaviour.
Venugopal took her to his residence in Tirupati, and along with his father K Pandurangachari, mother K Rani and Satosh, killed Padmavathi using a baton by hitting her on the head. During the last five months, whenever Padmavathi’s father M Tirumala Swamy tried to contact his daughter he could not reach her. On May 18 Venugopal came to a court in Tirupati in connection with his divorce. Padmavathi’s parents questioned him on the whereabouts of their daughter, but when Venugopal did not give them a proper answer, they got suspicious and lodged a complaint.