92-year-old Andhra man beats wife to death for not giving share in pension

The incident happened at Yalavarru village of Amruthaluru block in the district in the early hours of Monday.

The police in Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur district on Monday arrested a 92-year-old man for allegedly beating his 90-year-old wife to death for not giving a share in her social security pension.

Image for representation.

The incident happened at Yalavarru village of Amruthaluru block in the district in the early hours of Monday. The deceased was identified as Ephrayamma. The police, who registered a case of murder against her husband Mande Samiyelu, sent him to judicial remand.

According to Tsunduru police inspector B Ramesh Babu, Samiyelu and Ephrayamma had been living separately in the same village for the last 10 years, though they were not officially divorced. Their three daughters and three sons have been staying separately with their respective families.

Since the state government provides old-age pension of Rs 2,250 to only one person in the family, Ephrayamma had been getting the same. Every month, she had been sharing some part of the pension amount with Samiyelu.

“On Sunday night, Samiyelu went to Ephrayamma and demanded Rs 200 towards his expenses but she refused. This led to a quarrel between the two till late in the night. Samiyelu went home and returned in the early hours of Monday to pick up a quarrel with her. In a fit of rage, he smashed his wife’s head with his walking stick. He left the place only after confirming her death,” Ramesh Babu said.

Later in the day, he went to the residence of his elder son Yesaiah and informed him that he had killed his wife. “The son did not believe and went to work as usual. But Ephrayamma’s neighbours noticed her lying in a pool of blood and alerted the son,” the inspector said.

The police registered a murder case against Samiyelu based on a complaint by his eldest son Yesaiah and sent the body for post mortem at Tenali government hospital.