HYDERABAD: The ex-jawan of the Army, who killed his wife and chopped up her body, used the bathroom in his house for the brutal crime. Putta Gurumurthy,39, allegedly chopped up Puttavenkata Madhavi’s body, separated the bones from the flesh, boiled them in a large bucket using an immersion rod, and burnt her bones on a single burner stove usually used for cooking large meals at home.
The Clues team of Rachakonda police and Telangana Forensic Science Lab experts told TOI on Thursday that they have collected human tissue from the bathroom. The samples are being sent to the FSL for DNA profiling. Subsequently, samples will also be collected from the woman’s parents to verify if they match with that of the 35-year-old victim.
While experts have found the immersion rod, stove, and other tools used in the crime, Rachakonda police officials say they are hoping to gather more details from questioning Gurumurthy. The ex-jawan, who has his roots in AP, served in the Army for two decades. He joined as a sepoy and retired as a Naib Subedar some four years ago. For more than three years, he worked as a security guard in a defence PSU at Kanchanbagh in Hyderabad.
According to investigating officials, on January 13, the family went to Gurumurthy’s sister’s home in the neighbourhood. The couple returned in the evening, leaving behind their two children. On January 14, the couple went back to the sister’s home and returned during the night, again leaving their children behind.
On January 15 an argument broke out between the two. In a fit of rage, Gurumurthy beat up Madhavi and she allegedly died of her injuries .Police officials suspect she may have died due to severe head injuries.
“Gurumurthy dragged the body into the bathroom, chopped up the body with a butcher’s knife, and separated the bones from the flesh. He boiled the flesh and burnt the bones simultaneously inside the bathroom,” an official said.
As the bones became brittle on high flame, he could allegedly grind them. Later, he packed the ground bones and boiled flesh in a bag and dumped it in the nearby lake. Experts, however, could not find any evidence of any human remains in the lake. Investigation revealed that the entire operation may have taken him around eight hours, after which he cleaned the bathroom several times with water.
After committing the crime, he accompanied Madhavi’s parents to lodge a missing complaint and assisted the cops in searching for her. But when cops found CCTV evidence showing that Madhavi never left their house after she returned home on the night of Jan 14 and Gurumurthy alone left the house, returning multiple times, they picked him for questioning on Jan 21.
Subsequent questioning unravelled the gruesome details. Investigators also confirmed that the case is being altered from a missing person’s case to murder and disappearance of evidence.